Green Leaves
by Mikoto-chan92
Summary: Sequel to Wild Jungle. One year after the incident in the jungle, a certain hunter returns to earth and Cornelia's hometown to fulfill the promise they had made. Neither of them knowing of the second hunter in the city.
1. Start over

_Hia! :D As promised, here is the sequel to Wild Jungle. Set one year after, in some random city in the US. _

_I have a lot of funny and cool ideas I'm going to use for this story, seeing as I already started coming up with the ideas already back around chapter 6 of WJ. So look forward to it ;) _

_On further notice; I'm probably going to write some Transformers stories after I'm done with 'Green Leaves'. So look forward to it!_

_One more important piece of information! I bought myself a Predator novel :D It was called "South China Sea" and was really awesome. And I think there was actually a reference to the Transformers in there! :O I was so surprised! I mean, come on! "Story tall robots that turned into vehicles", Who else could it be?_

_Peace out!_

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"_A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance." _~ Anatole France

**Chapter 1: Start over**

"Cornelia! Stay hidden and don't try anything stupid!" a boy shouted in the middle of a small forest, startling the birds in the tree above him, making them take off and fly away. The boy had messy brown hair and green eyes, about eight to nine years in age. He held a stern glare on his face, directed ahead at another boy with dark hair that held his arms crossed over his chest in an attempt to look more confident and powerful.

They would probably have been at each other a long while ago if it hadn't been for the jump rope that was tying the brunette to the tree trunk. The two grade scholars stood glaring at each other for a couple more minutes before the dark haired boy turned around and shouted into the forest, "Hey! Have you guys found her yet?" One moment later, a head jumped up from behind a bush and shook her head. The girl was at the same age as the boys, with her long brown hair but up in a pony tail. "Not yet. Simon says he haven't found her either", she told the black-haired one, pointing to a blonde boy that was sneaking around some trees a couple of meters to the left.

"Jackson, it's not fair that only we have to search, come help us", the girl told him in a displeased tone. The boy frowned, "Well I would, Cassidy, but _someone_ needs to watch the prisoner", Jackson replied, annoyed, growing tired of nothing happening. They had been looking for the blonde girl for over ten minutes now, and there was absolutely no sign of her.

"Maybe she gave up and went home without telling us!" Simon shouted over to the others on his team. Jackson cast glance over to him before he grinned and turned over to their prisoner. "If that's the case, we'll just leave Ken here tied up and go home too." The brunette came up with a shocked expression as he started kicking his feet forward in an attempt to reach Jackson, who was well out of reach. "I'll tell on you if you do that!" he threatened, not having any plans on staying there for the rest of the day.

"Hey! Don't blame this on me! Cornelia is the one that's supposed to rescue you, so it's her fault if she just left without saying a word", the dark haired boy defended, not wanting to be yelled at by him mom… again.

Ken stayed silent, pouting at the lack of responses he could come up with. "Jackson! Come help us look, and if we can't find her we'll just go home", Cassidy called out from behind a bush. Finally giving into the girl's complaining, he turned walked around a bush as he started searching.

* * *

Bright blue eyes lit up as the opportunity she had waited for presented itself. Lying on her stomach under a bush, she watched as Jackson walked away from her target. She started to crawl forward once he was out of sight and silently dragged herself over to the tree where Ken was tied up. Once there she jumped up and hid behind the tree and peaked around it to check if she had been spotted.

"This is Blue Hawk to Brown Bear. Do you read me?" Cornelia whispered into a toy walkie-talkie that she had had strapped to her belt earlier. Ken smiled slightly before replying, "This is Brown Bear. I read you loud and clear, over!" Cornelia nodded to herself as she kept a visual on the enemy team, making sure they weren't looking. "Blue Hawk now starting operation blue-4. Standby for a code 36 once you are in the clear", Cornelia whispered into the walkie-talkie before strapping it back on her belt. She tilted her gray plastic helmet a little up, so that it didn't block her sight.

"Roger that", Ken replied as Cornelia slipped around the tree over to where the knot was located. After a few seconds, the girl had managed to untie it and freed Ken, who gave her a grateful nod as they both snuck away from the tree and into the bushes. They crept away from the tree, successful for about one minute, before they heard shouting from behind them. Casting each other a look they started running; stealth was no longer needed.

The two kids couldn't help but grin and laugh like crazy as they made their way through the green scenery. After about two minutes, both of them emerged from the forest edge, but continued sprinting toward the many houses that stood by a road in the center. They didn't slow down until they had come up to a large white house with a big garden and a tall hedge surrounding it.

Once past the entrance, the team slowed to a jogging tempo, but kept going until they were at the door, opening it before darting in and slamming it shut behind them. Inside, they sat down with their back against the door, giggling, before giving each other a high five. "Mission completed!" the boy and the girl cheered at the same time.

Drawn to the attention in the hallway, Emilia stepped out of the kitchen with a ladle in her hand. Once she spotted the two children she smiled slightly and called over to them, "Hello Ken, would you like to stay for dinner?" Both of them threw their gaze over to Cornelia's mom with a humorous smile placed on their faces. "Yes, thank you! Mom won't be home from work for a couple of hours anyway", the boy replied happily.

"What are we having?" Cornelia chirped up, taking off her helmet since she didn't need it anymore. (Technically, she hadn't needed it at all.) "We are having vegetable soup, and blueberry pie for dessert." Before Emilia was even done with her sentence, both kids jumped up from the floor and ran into the kitchen, not stopping until they had located the pie that was standing by the open window.

Staring up at the steaming pie, Cornelia's mouth began to water as she reached up to touch the dessert, but her mother quickly grabbed her hand before she could get to close to it. "Careful! You'll end up burning yourself if you are careless", she told her, then cast another look over her girl before adding, "And I have told you to clean yourself before eating!"

The blonde blinked at the remark before looking down at herself, only to find her clothes covered in dirt from crawling around in the forest. Ken snickered slightly at her side, but Cornelia paid no attention to him as she trotted out of the kitchen. "I'm going to go change!" she shouted as she disappeared past the door, but popped back up a second later, giving Ken a suspicious look. "Don't touch the pie. It's for dessert" she ordered him, before retreating back out of sight, leaving Ken with a disappointed look on his face.

Jumping up the stairs, Cornelia made her way up to her room. Pushing open her door, she entered a room that should be too big for a lone child by far. The walls were painted in a light pink tone, with wooden floors, decorated with a big cream colored carpet in the middle. At the end of the room were two big glass doors, leading out to the girl's own small balcony, with two tall curtains at each side which matched the carpet.

A big four-post bed with curtains hanging down at each side, was placed to at the right side of the room, covered with pink and white pillows, bed sheets and a more colorful collection of dolls and fluffy toys. A mirror was covering part of the left side wall, with the closet door at the side. Different furniture decorated the room; a desk, a kid size sofa complete with a matching table, a box to hold all her toys and book shelf that mostly held fairy tale books, but also some school related literature.

Darting over to her closet, Cornelia pulled out a light-blue top, together with a darker skirt that went down to her knees. She stepped over to the mirror as she started throwing off her dirty clothes, placing them on the floor for the moment. She put on the top before stopping and watched her reflection in the mirror, smiling as her eyes landed on the green jewelry that was hanging around her neck.

Holding the black thread, Cornelia stared at the leaf-like rock for a minute with a grin placed on her mouth, then tucked it safely under her top. Her mother and father weren't aware of the necklace she had been holding on to for the past year, not that there was anything wrong with telling them, but the eight-year-old wanted to keep Catcher's secret for herself and that included the warm stone that hung around her neck as a reminder that her alien-friend would once return.

Cornelia giggled slightly at the thought of the hunter, looking forward to the day that they would meet again. Pulling up her skirt, she proceeded with twisting it slightly till the small heart mark was at her right side. Smiling at her reflection in the mirror, the girl nodded in improvement of her get-up. Snatching up her old clothes, Cornelia jogged out of her room and into the restroom where she dropped them with the rest of the laundry. After having washed her hands, the blonde made her way back down to the kitchen where her mother was placing three plates filled with soup on the table.

Climbing onto her usual seat, Cornelia looked over at Ken who sat on her dad's usual place. "Is daddy still at work?" the girl asked, turning to her mother as she also sat down. "Yes, he's going to be late today. He's at a meeting, which will probably last a while." Cornelia stared at Emilia for a moment in disappointment, but didn't voice her unhappiness about the fact. Once the woman had told them to start eating, Cornelia grabbed her spoon and a piece of bread from a plate in the middle of the table which her mother had cut up for them.

"By the way, I need to go into town and do a bit of shopping after dinner. Do you want to come with me?" Emilia asked, looking up at the two children. Cornelia immediately started nodding, unable to speak because of the bread she had stuffed into her mouth a second earlier. Ken snorted in amusement at Cornelia before turning to her mother. "Sorry, can't. I promised my dad to finish my homework today", the boy told her with an annoyed tone to his voice, clearly whishing that he could have joined them.

"Ah well, maybe another time then, Ken", Emilia responded. "A promise is a promise." Cornelia flashed a huge grin at the last sentence, making Ken jerk back at the sudden action. "W-what's with you?" he asked, a little uncertain. The girl continued to grin as she turned to him, "A promise is a promise." Cornelia repeated, enjoying her own personal joke. Ken only stared at her for a moment before scowling and turning back to his food. "Stupid homework!"

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Cornelia asked form the backseat, staring out the window at the scenery fly by. Emilia checked her rear-view mirror once, before turning her eyes back to the road ahead as she replied. "Soon sweetie, we'll be there in a few minutes." The woman paused for a moment before looking back at her daughter. "While you are waiting, you might as well go over the ABC-rules to make the time pass."

Cornelia's eyes lit up as she set her eyes at her mother's reflection in the mirror up front. "ABC's rules for shopping in the city: Number one!" Cornelia started with a serious tone that didn't fit her personality. Though it was obvious that she enjoyed it. "Don't talk to any strangers. Even people who give you their name are still strangers."

Emilia nodded in confirmation from behind the steering wheel. "Number two: Never go anywhere with strangers. Especially if they tell you they have toys or candy for you", Cornelia continued, smiling slightly as her mother gave her another nod. "Rule number three: If lost, try to find a police officer which can help you. However, be cautious to the fact that some people dress up as officers and may try to trick others. Therefore, get a good look at his badge and check if something seems wrong with it."

Mrs. Campbell's eyes narrowed in confusion. She hadn't heard that last part before, turning to the mirror, she asked, "When did your dad tell you that?" Cornelia grinned and shifted slightly in her seat, "After he watched a new show on TV about the police." Emilia rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, "and the last one?"

"Right! Rule number four: Don't suddenly run off after seeing something interesting. Tell either mom or dad that you want to go somewhere, and one of them will follow you", Cornelia finished. "You want me to take the rules about playing and camping in the woods too?" the girl asked with a grin. The woman smiled slightly, "That won't be necessary, we are already here." She pulled the car into the parking lot outside of the shopping center, searching for a free spot where she could place her vehicle for the time being.

Once the car pulled to a stop, Cornelia hurriedly removed the seatbelt and jumped out the door and closed it behind her. She then ran around the car to meet her mother who was just about to lock the doors. The woman put her keys into her purse before turning to her daughter, offering a hand to hold, which the girl gladly accepted. Together, they walked in through the automatic doors and into the mall before the doors closed behind them.

XxX

The glass doors parted to the sides as the two females made their way back out of the building, Cornelia walking ahead with a plastic bag in her arms, holding onto the handle with both her hands as she searched for their silver car. Emilia walked behind with a bag in each hand, spotting her car before her daughter did, and made her way towards it.

Cornelia followed swiftly after her mother, before she stopped and unlocked the car, opening the trunk and put the bags into it. Her daughter copied Emilia's action, but with a bit more difficulty because of the height difference between them. However, she managed to push the plastic container over to the other two after a minute or two. The blonde woman closed the door once her daughter was done and continued over to the door on the driver side, opening to step inside, but paused as her eyes landed on a crowd that had gathered at the end of the parking lot, near the road.

Curiosity taking over, Emilia closed the door again and looked over at Cornelia who had been about to jump into the car, but stopped as she watched her mother and did the same. Closing the door, Cornelia ran around to her mother and looked in the same direction she had. "Can we go look?" the child asked, grabbing her mother's hand again as she nodded. They made their way over to the crowd. Emilia looked over the people and onto the street where an ambulance and police car stood parked. A little more to the left was a black car that stood with its front into a shop window, scratches and dents was present, but no real big damage seemed to have been done.

There was a slight tug at her hand which made Emilia look down at her daughter who was staring back up at her with a displeased frown. "Mommy, I can't see anything." The woman cast another glance to the accident scene, making sure there was nothing there which would be bad for an eight-year-old to witness. Finding no such thing, Emilia knelt down to her daughter and lifted her up on her shoulders, grunting slightly at the weight before she rose up to her full height, holding Cornelia's hands so that she wouldn't tip backwards.

Cornelia squealed with joy as she was lifted high above the ground, looking out past the mass of people. "I can see it!" The girl informed her mother in delight. "Could you please hurry, sweetie? Mommy is getting tired", the woman pleaded, trying not to sound as if she was about to collapse from the weight. Luckily, the girl took the hint and looked down at her mother, "Okay, I'm done."

* * *

The helmet display stayed zoomed in on the young female that sat on top of her parent's shoulders, a red line at the side which captured the sound waves when one of the creatures spoke. The display targeted the stone that hung around the neck of the female, checking once more to confirm its suspicions of what the object truly was.

The spying creature stood across the street, atop of the building which the black car had crashed into, the cloaking device preventing it from being discovered by any humans that would happen to look its way. It continued to watch the heat signature of both the child and the stone she was in possession of, but the two disappeared behind the surrounding humans once the mother had lifted her off her shoulders and back on the ground, out of view.

The Predator turned back to look at the incident it had caused only a few minutes earlier. The authorities was working on removing the dark car from the shop, the ambulance personnel helping to calm down a worried shop owner since no one had gotten any injuries worse that small cuts and bruises. The objective of this small 'accident', had been to figure out how the car's owner would react if anything drastic would happen, and the hunter hadn't been disappointed.

Five people had been in the car when it had crashed, and all of them had pulled out of the area in a matter of minutes before the police could arrive. All of them had remained calm, but on guard if the accident was actually an assault. When nothing had happened after a minute or two, the men dressed formally in black, had escaped the scene.

The Predator had not followed them, and he was rewarded for his patience shortly after. His helmet beeped once he had began scanning the area and found the rare energy signal of one of the nature stones of the Katuram planet in the Nactu'ra solar system, hanging around the neck of a young human female.

Watching the two humans that was now walking away from the crowd and over to one of the cars, which they entered shortly after, the hunter observed as the vehicle started its engine, turning his head to check on the black car beneath him once more. He had gotten what he needed, and there was nothing more he needed to do at the moment. Walking slowly along the edge of the building, he watched the road to his left as the silver Audi pulled out of the parking lot and turned to the right.

* * *

Emilia sat in the sofa in the living room later that evening with a book in her hand, and a lamp behind her pointed at the letters. Only a few lights were on, not needing too much light at the moment. She turned a page before looking up at the ticking clock that was hanging on the wall to her right. It was slightly past nine in the evening, and her husband hadn't gotten home yet. She knew he was going to be late, but three hours was a long time for a meeting to last.

She turned to stare out the window, a beautiful full moon light up the dark sky, the stars faint in the background. Cornelia had gone to bed a while ago, too tired to wait for her father to come home.

The woman sighed tiredly as she put a bookmark between the pages of the novel and put it down on the table as she stood up and made her way over to the kitchen, but stopped once she heard the familiar sound of the front door opening. She switched direction and made her way into the hallway where her exhausted husband stood, closing the door behind him and kicking off his shoes. Once he turned and saw his wife in the doorway, his face brightened as he made his way over to her and hugged her.

"Emilia! I missed you sooo much", he told her in a childish manner, closing his eyes as she returned the hug. Smiling slightly at his mood, she could already guess why he had been late because of his behavior. "That stupid Anderson wouldn't let me go home to my beautiful wife and my little princess! Kept arguing against the rest of us the whole time, and even when we agreed with him, he would change his mind and start all over again!" Aaron complained in his wife's embrace.

The woman simply let out a sigh and patted her husband's brown hair to show her compassion, which she always did when he was like that. "At least he let you go in the end" she reassured him, but felt him jerk a little at the comment. "Ah, about that… I kind of snuck out the door when he wasn't looking" the man admitted, earning him a soft giggle from his wife.

Aaron looked up at his wife with a smile as he leaned in and gave her a kiss. She kissed him back before they let go of each other and walked together into the living room, where the man started looking around restlessly. "Has Cornelia gone to bed already?" Aaron asked, a little disappointed. He had been hoping to get a hug and maybe a kiss on the cheek from her, to cheer him up after a long day at work.

"It is past her bedtime, and she was pretty tired today, so she went to bed about half an hour ago or so", Emilia told him with a small smile before moving on to the kitchen, "I'll warm up the dinner." Aaron smiled at her retreating back, "Thanks dear, I'll go check up on our little princess", he told her and made his way up the stairs and over to a closed door. The man carefully twisted the handle and pushed the door open, sticking his head through the doorway and gazed into the room before stepping inside, letting the door stay open behind him.

He tip toed over to the bed where Cornelia lay sleeping, the covers drawn up to her chest as she lay with her head on the side and her favorite bunny lying on her outstretched arm. Her eyes were closed, her breathing slow and mouth slightly open. Aaron stood at the side of a bed with a smile on his face, before he slowly bent down and kissed his daughter on the forehead. "Good night, Cornelia."

He tucked her in before he straightened up and looked at the sleeping girl for a moment before he looked away from her and over at the open glass doors that led out to the balcony, the curtains waving softly back and forth from the wind. Aaron strode over to the opening and peered outside into the darkened outside world, the lights of the city visible in the distance. He cast another glance up at the moon and the starry sky above him, which Cornelia loved so much.

Smiling slightly, her father closed the door.

The man walked back to Cornelia's bedside and gave her another quick kiss, then walked out of her room, gently closing the white door behind him. Soon he had made his way down into the kitchen where his wife was pouring some of the left-over soup into a bowl and set it down on the table. "Thank you, dear", Aaron told her as he gave her a kiss on the cheek before sitting down.

He grabbed his spoon and tasted the soup with a pleased expression. "Mmm, delicious", he complimented his wife, who in return sent him a smile and sat down beside him with a glass of water in her hand. The man continued eating while Emilia sat at his side, telling him about their day. Aaron stopped eating for a minute and turned to face her, "By the way, I Closed the balcony door in Cornelia's room. Was afraid it would get too chilly in there."

Emilia stared at her husband, a little surprised. "I haven't opened the doors. They were closed when I told her good night."

Aaron looked up at the blonde, both of them staring at each other for a minute before the husband shrugged and offered his wife a reassuring smile, "Guess she must have opened it herself, then." Emilia nodded back in agreement. After all, who else could it have been?

* * *

The cloaked hunter stepped out from his place in the dark corner and walked over to the bed where the small human girl lay sleeping. She stirred slightly as the disorientated figure loomed over her, and turned to the side with a frown on her face. Slowly, the Predator stretched out a hand and dragged the fabric a bit down, revealing the green stone that had fallen out from the girl's top.

Pausing to look at the object for a moment, the hunter let out a series of pleased clicking sounds as he reached for it. Something he should never have done.

Once the sound had escaped him, Cornelia's eyes snapped open and she hurriedly sat up with wide eyes. "Catcher?" the girl managed to shout before her head collided with the metal of the wrist guard of the humanoid. A huge 'cling' could be heard in the room before Cornelia fall back onto her pillow, both hands clutching her forehead in pain. "Ooow!"

The predator sweat dropped as he stared down at the child, finding the incident a little funny. He turned his glance down at his retreated hand as an electric current was sent through his camouflage as it started to disappear around him. The hunter pointed an accusing glare at the girl. She must had accidently deactivated his cloaking devise. He only hoped she hadn't disabled it as well.

Cornelia continued to clutch her throbbing forehead as she looked up as the creature at her side started to materialize, instantly recognizing what was happening. She instantly flashed a huge smile as she watched the alien take shape in front of her.

Dark Green and brow reptile-like skin showed under the fish netting, pieces of gray metallic armor on the feet, knees and waist, accompanied with a brown belt. They were all different from what the girl remembered, and her smile started to slowly fade away as she continued to stare with wide eyes. The chest piece was in four parts, covering most of his upper body, and huge scar right below it that went almost horizontal at his side. A necklace made of bones hung around his neck.

The mask soon materialized, revealing a much wider eye area that kind of looked like a ski-mask. Of the dreadlocks hanging from the side of his head, the first two was twice as long as the others, reaching down to his chest. The other dreadlocks where shorter and had had fever rings on them, not to mention that they stood out and made it look a little spiky.

Silence dawned on the room as the cloak completely disappeared and the two creatures stayed still as they stared at each other. Cornelia's face filled with shock, confusion and… disappointment.

"You are not Catcher."

**To be continued…**

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_Muahaha! :D Fear my evil cliffhangers! _

_Ps. I already have a drawing of this new predator, but I'm going to wait till after chapter 2 to post it on my deviantart page. :)_


	2. Life is a highway

_... Sooooo~ Long time no see! Damn, how many months has it been? _

_The reason i started writing in the first place was because most the stories i read had either been abandoned or been on hitatus, and I told myself that i would never do that XD and look what happened. Can't really blame anything else than my stupid inspiration that went on vacation._

_Anyway, i'll update more often. I PROMISE!_

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_If you don't know where you are going, any orad will take you there. ~ _Lewis Carroll

**Chapter 2: Life is a highway.**

The two creatures continued to stare at each other as minutes ticked by, and neither of them had once looked away from the other. The girl held a disappointed frown for a while, but it had soon turned into a curious gaze. She tilted her head slightly to the side, watching the humanoid as he too, regarded her with curiosity, but also a bit of confusion.

Cornelia was the first one to break the silent tension that had been building up during the staring contest. "Hello", she greeted, blinking a couple of times as the Predator tilted his head slightly to the side, similar to what Catcher used to do. The girl was now starting to wonder if the gesture was something all these aliens used. "Are you a friend of Catcher, maybe?"

It was quiet for a few seconds, and Cornelia was about to repeat the question, but was cut off as she suddenly hear her own voice talk back to her. "_Catcher_."

Cornelia jumped, having not expected any reply. She stared wide-eyed up at the hunter at her bedside. It slowly came to her that it had had to be a recorded sound, but it lacked any metallic undertone, so it took the girl a while to understand. Why hadn't Catcher done that before?

The girl continued to stare up at the metal mask as seconds ticked by. The Predator shifted slightly, getting impatient. He let out a low growl to snap her out of her daydreaming, which seemed to have mutated into a language class with a certain alien and a classroom full of kids that didn't pay attention to the out-of-place teacher. And that went without mentioning the Christmas necktie covered in reindeers and snowflakes. He looked kind of cute in Cornelia's mind. Any other human would have thought of it as creepy, not to mention plain _wrong_.

The Predator stared down at the human as she drifted off into la-la land again.

Coming to the conclusion that the girl wouldn't return to reality any time soon, he focused back on the reason he was there in the first place. The hunter reached out toward the green stone, about to grab it when it suddenly shifted out of reach.

Cornelia had noticed the motion and the moment he realized what he was reaching for, she backed away from the hand. She was too busy protecting her necklace to take notice of that she was nearing the edge of her bed. The girl gasped as her palm hit nothing but air and tumbled over the edge, hitting the floor with a thud.

Her uninvited visitor stood still, hand still outstretched as he stared at the now empty furniture. A low groan reached him and the humanoid lowered his hand as the human child pulled herself up, using the bed as support. She fixed her eyes on the hunter, studying him with a suspicious, if not displeased, expression.

"You can't have it!" Cornelia stated firmly, pointing an accusing finger at the alien, who could only stare back at her.

"Catcher lent it to me, and I promised to give it back. So you can't have it." The girl continued to glare at him, daring him to try to take it from her. Her visitor tilted his head slightly at her, now beginning to understand why this human hadn't been afraid of her. She had encountered another of his race, which she called Catcher. His gaze drifted back to the energy stone around her neck, which she was now holding on to.

The Predator couldn't understand why someone would leave such a valuable object with a human, a child, none the less. But the fact that he would return, if this child's statement was true, made the hunter slightly uneasy. He hadn't come across another of his kind in the seventy years he had been stranded on this planet, and he hadn't any plans to start now.

With a swift motion, the hunter turned around and strode back to the way he had come in, stopping at the glass doors and unlocking them before pushing them open. He had only managed to take one step before a voice called out after him and a pair of small feet ran over the floor. "Wait!"

The Predator turned back to the room, directing his gaze down at the child who was now standing only a few feet in front of him.

"Where are you going?"

As an answer, the alien turned his head toward the distant lights of the city. Cornelia followed his line of sight and stumbled past him, lifting herself up on the railing of her balcony to get a better view. She stared ahead for a couple of seconds, and then turned to the hunter, pointing a finger toward the lights. "Are you going to the city?"

The humanoid shifted to watch the girl, then gave her a nod. Cornelia frowned at him for a moment, looked over to the lights, then back at him. "But it's night! All the toy stores are closed now."

The Predator made a motion behind his mask, similar to how the humans raised a brow. He stared at the child for a moment then started to search the recordings he had gathered over the years. Finding the right one, he played it, startling Cornelia as a rough male voice spoke; "_There is something I need to check_."

Cornelia stared up at him smiling, amused with the way he was communicating with her. It was easier than the gestures Catcher used to tell her things, but it had always been fun to guess what he meant.

"I want to come with you!"

The Predator actually jerked slightly in surprise as he snapped his head around, staring at the grinning child. "Hang on; I need to go get my shoes and a jacket." The girl jumped away from the railing and jogged back into her room, opening her closet door and pulled out a pair of sneakers, along with some socks she hurriedly put on.

Out on the balcony, the hunter continued to stare at the child as she grabbed a grey sweater with a red flower covering the front. He was starting to wonder if he had just wasted his chance to get out of there as Cornelia came back, putting on the extra clothing and turning to him with a smile. "Okay, I'm ready!"

The girl continued to grin up at him as he stood completely still, staring dumbly at the bold human before him. Luckily, his mask was in place to hide his bewildered expression.

Cornelia shifted her line of sight from his mask and to his dreadlocks. She continued to stare at them while its owner collected himself from his small shock. He shifted his weight slightly, and then shook his head, causing his dreadlocks to follow the motion. Cornelia smiled brightly as she pointed triumphantly up at him, having made up her mind. "I'm going to call you Spike!"

The newly named Predator stiffened, now understanding the name she had used on the first of his species she had encountered, because he honestly couldn't believe that there was someone with an earth name among his race.

He lifted his head slightly, replaying the nickname in his head for a few moments. Deciding he found it kind of cool, the hunter gave the girl a nod. The acceptance of the name caused Cornelia to grin up at him. She then stepped closer to him and leveled him with an expecting look, which the alien couldn't quite understand, so he tilted his head in a questionable manner.

In response Cornelia lifted her arms up toward him, "Pick me up. I want to go to the city now."

Spike shook his head, then searched out a new recording and played it, this time sounding like a woman. "_You stay here_."

Cornelia's face fell at the statement and her mouth dropped open, a disbelieving look covering her features. "B-but Catcher always took me with him!" she argued, and then took a few hasty steps forward, covering the distance between them. She threw her arms and feet around his leg, holding onto it with a death grip. "I'm going with you!"

The Predator leaned slightly away from the human child, slightly put off by her actions. He had been in a similar situation once before, but that was with an animal he was hunting, so he had just killed it. That tactic couldn't really be used now, but he didn't actually have any other solutions to this problem. Trying to pry her off had a high probability of ending up with something broken.

Spike let out a breath, giving in to the child. "_Fine_."

The girl loosened her grip slightly, craning her head back to peek up at him. She fixed him with a suspicious look, eyes narrowed as she searched for any sign that he was either lying or changing his mind any time soon. She finally gave him an approving nod and let go of his leg.

Cornelia repeated her actions from earlier, lifting both her arms up, waiting for him to pick her up. The hunter paused for a moment, unsure how to proceed, but got more confident as he remembered seeing another human carrying their child. He bent slightly, grabbing the girl by the back of her jacket and lifted her off the ground.

Spike moved her around his shoulder to his back and waited for her to grab a hold of him before letting go. Cornelia blinked as she wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning a little to the side so that she could peek over his shoulder. She looked back down beside her, placing a leg into the strap of a small leather bag that was hanging on his back.

Once she had gotten a better grip, she looked up at the metal mask that was turned her way. She smiled at him, grateful for the piggy-back ride.

"_Hang on tight_", a male voice ordered. Cornelia nodded and tightened her hold slightly, bringing on a determined expression as Spike turned his head forward and took a step toward the railing. The girl grinned from ear to ear, having missed the rides through the jungle tops, and the fast, acrobatic movements these aliens were capable of.

Spike placed a foot up onto the railing, pushing himself up; he easily balanced on the piece of wood. The hunter lowered himself before leaning forward, his ski mask-like eyes fixed on the ground beneath a tree in the garden, a good distance away from his current position. The powerful muscles in his legs tightened before he leaped.

Cornelia couldn't help but squeal in delight as they briefly flew through the air, her arms tightening around his neck to not fall off from the force of the jump.

He landed with a thud beneath the tree, not the slightest faced with the impact that would have easily broken the bones of any human that would have tried anything like it. Not that they could even if they had wanted to.

The Predator didn't stay for more than a second before he broke into a run, causing Cornelia to start laughing with joy. Spike turned his head slightly, giving her a warning growl. She instantly went quiet, but continued to keep a big grin on her face as her transportation maneuvered over their fence. Choosing a path guarded by trees and bushes to avoid being seen, the dark helped camouflage them. The full moon provided enough light for Cornelia to see through the dark. She watched over Spike's shoulder as he quickly made his way through the neighborhood, heading for the highway.

It took a few minutes, but they eventually arrived at the side of the highway. Spike managed to get all the way to the edge of the built wall at the side of the road thanks to the unattended vegetation, shielding them from view as cars drove by.

It wasn't in any way crowded on the tree lanes, but there were still many vehicles driving back and forth below them. Cornelia watched the cars for a while, and then turned to Spike with a puzzled look, wondering what he was going to do.

The masked Predator perked up as he finally spotted a fitting vehicle moving toward them in the lane closest to their position. Spike lightly tapped the hands clinging to his neck, signaling for Cornelia to let go as he knelt down. Once she was closer to the ground, the girl released her hold of the humanoid and jumped down to the ground. She quickly darted around him, peeking through the branches to spot the truck headed their way.

A thick arm wrapped itself around the girl's waist, causing her to yelp slightly in surprise. She craned her head back to look up at Spike as he crouched down and pressed the girl back, closer to his chest, all the while holding his gaze fixed on the truck.

Cornelia followed his example and turned to watch the vehicle. She finally managed to fit the pieces together, her eyes widening as the child realized what he was planning. But it was too late to stop him by now. Cornelia snapped her head back forward and tensed as she prepared for her the humanoid to act. And just before the truck passed them, Spike leaped, flying through the air for a few seconds.

The girl he was holding on to gasped as she stared down at the asphalt only a couple of feet below them. But she didn't have to worry about the possibility of crashing down on to the rough road, because the next second her charge landed on the top of the trailer of the truck. Before the air pressure or the vehicle made any move to throw him off, Spike threw himself down onto his side, careful to not to hurt the child beneath him.

He threw his free hand down, digging his strong claws into the roof of the container to get a better grip and not fall off. Cornelia hung on to the arm wrapped around her, even if that was unnecessary. The alien already had a strong and firm grip of her. The only thing that would cause him to let go by now would be if he lost his arm.

The truck driver continued his journey, not having detected the slight tremor a few seconds earlier.

Air flew past the duo as they pressed close to the ceiling, both Cornelia's hair and Spike's dreadlocks being whipped back by the wind moving past them. Cornelia finally decided that she felt safe enough to break out into a big grin and started to laugh in amusement.

They were riding on top of a truck! How crazy wasn't that?

Still, Cornelia continued to giggle and snicker in delight as their transportation shifted lanes and moved past a slow-going car. The Predator holding her looked back down at her, grinning behind his mask, glad that she was accepting his way of traveling. Normally he would have either gotten inside the container or moved to a better spot, but this was a fairly short trip, so this would do for now.

The humored girl caught him looking at her and glanced back at him with a big smile across her lips. "This is awesome!" Cornelia shouted to him, wanting to be sure he heard her over the wind roaring around them. Spike responded with a quick growl, but it held no annoyance or malice behind it, so Cornelia took it as an agreement.

One of his long dreadlocks danced in the fleeting air in front of the girl as the humanoid turned back to watch the road ahead of them. Cornelia stared at the long, black tube-like object in front of her, instantly releasing her grip on Spike's arm and reached out to grab it. She wasn't able to reach it before she instantly went back to gripping his arm as the truck switched lanes a little too quickly, causing its two passengers to skid slightly across the container.

Spike held on tightly until the vehicle had stabilized again before relaxing his grip. He continued to scan distant for the approaching city, unaware of the girl who was once again making it a game of trying to catch his dreadlocks. He was planning on staying in the outer parts of the City, mainly the docks where he would be gathering some information he needed.

His hunting methods had always been different from others of his kind, even before he had been stranded on this back-water planet. This Predator never went around on a killing spree, taking out every person he came across with a weapon. Oh no, he always went for the boss. The hunter would always make it a challenge for himself, taking out the head of any dangerous organization with killing as little grunts as possible.

There was even once he managed to take out the boss without alerting anyone else of his presence, not to mention avoiding killing anyone else.

Spike stared ahead as the truck switched lanes on its way to exit the highway. The hunter quickly put up a road map over the City on the monitor in his helmet, searching for the different locations this particular way would lead. He couldn't help but emit a pleased clicking noise as he found the road taking them directly to the docks. How incredibly convenient.

Cornelia snatched her hand back at the sudden sound, the dreadlock having managed to sneak away from her grasp once more. She peeked up at the alien, before going back to trying to catch his 'hair' once she was fairly certain he hadn't noticed her activity.

The truck continued ahead for a few more minutes, the surrounding quickly shifting from the tunnels and bright, towering buildings in the distance, to an older and more eerie area. Seagulls screeched as the smells from the ocean washed over them. Once the truck came to a stop by a gate, Cornelia and Spike lay quietly on top of the box as the driver got cleared by the guard.

Cornelia reached for the dreadlock once more with her small hands stretching out toward it, her expression set in extreme concentration.

Her fingertips touched the rubber-like substance, Cornelia's focus fixed on the task at hand. So focused with her mission, she managed to miss the slight motion as the grip tightened around her waist. Just as it was within her grasp, victory was snatched away from her as Spike withdrew his claws from the container and quickly rose up, bringing his dreadlocks out of reach.

Cornelia could only stare in disbelief and frustration at the empty spot in front of her hand. She didn't have much time to mope, however, as Spike held her close while he took two hasty steps toward the edge of the truck. He jumped off their transportation, easily clearing the distance to a roof of a nearby warehouse.

The Predator landed heavily on the flat stone roof, pausing to scan his surroundings for a moment. Once he found it clear, he put down the human, who in response turned to frown irritably at him once she was grounded.

Spike stared confused back at her, not understanding what it was she suddenly was so mad about. Before he had a chance to ask her, she lifted a hand and made a motion for him to come closer. The hunter recognized the action and knelt down in front of her, one knee touching the ground. Once he was close enough, Cornelia's hands shot up and grabbed a hold of both his long dreadlocks.

The alien continued to stare at her, now more confused than ever. The girl however, studied the objects in her hands with criticism. She then nodded to herself as a pleased expression crossed her face. Cornelia let go of his dreadlocks and twisted around with all the confident in the world as she marched across the rooftop. "Come on, let's go exploring!"

Spike's eyes stayed on her for a while longer, before a small laugh escaped his throat, making the hunter shake his head. This had to be one of the strangest humans he had ever met… She may even be on his top five weirdo list, and that was saying a lot.

The Predator pushed himself off the floor and followed the girl, easily catching up to her with his long strides. One thing was for sure: this was going to be an interesting night.

**To be continued…**


	3. Down by the bay

_Hi guys! So, I forgot to add a quote in the last chapter. That has been taken care of, so you can go back and check it out if you want._

_Had a little trouble with writing this chapter, mostly because of the lame weather. Just gray skies, rain and the old, annoying snow that nobody like, sets me in a bad mood. But wait! Was that a blue spot in the sky? No, look! It's snowing! Yay! New white snow! Thanks, God! :D_

"Hello there" – Talking

"**Hello there**" – Predator native language

"_Hello there_" - Recording_In this business you either sink or swim or you don't. ~_ David Smith

* * *

**Chapter 3: Down by the bay.**

There was the constant sound of the small tides hitting the concrete docks, seagulls screeching as they swooped between the many warehouses in the area and the distant sounds from the city life a few miles away. It was a clear view from the bay, of towering buildings rising up across the water, lights and sounds drifting along with the wind all the way to the mostly empty harbor.

Mostly, except for a pair sneaking around the bay. The contrast in height between the duo could only be seen as comical, not to mention that the leading party was an eight-year-old girl.

Cornelia Campbell quickly darted from her hiding place behind a wooden crate, moving over to stand between a bigger box and the solid wall of one of the housings. She leaned back against the wall, her eyes darting around the place to check if the coast was clear before she switched position again. Behind her followed Spike, moving in an almost lazy stride as he watched the small human with amusement.

The girl poked her head out from her current hiding place, scanning the wide alley before she made a dash for new cover, throwing herself down into a duck-and-roll as she reached the new metal container and leaning back against it as she peeked around the corner. Cornelia was about to move anew, but was stopped by a powerful grip at the back of her jacket. She had the time to make a surprised choking sound as the fabric came pressing against her throat, but the pressure quickly disappeared once Spike got a better grip around her waist and lifted a finger to hold up where his mouth should have been.

Cornelia quickly nodded, and the hunter released her. Cornelia peeked around the crate again, and this time she could make out two male voices near their current position. She shrunk back slightly as it became apparent the two men were moving toward them, her partner knelt down at her side as he lifted his head, listening as the voices grew louder.

Two men appeared at the end of the space between the two warehouses, dressed in dark colors and each of them wearing fedora hats as they continued the conversation between them at a volume that was hard for Cornelia to pick up on. She hurriedly ducked behind her hiding place as one of the men turned to look down the alley. The girl held her breath as she waited for any suggestions he had noticed her.

However, the voices continued on their way, continuing on their patrol around the harbor. Once two men were far enough away, Cornelia let out a relieved sigh. She continued to stare down at the ground with one of the distant looks she got each time the girl was thinking hard about something. Eventually her eyebrows fell into a suspicious frown and she turned toward Spike who was watching her with curiosity.

"Those people looked like bad guys, so we have to be extra sneaky so that they won't find us."

The Predator continued to stare at her for a few seconds longer before he gave her a nod and shifted his focus down at his wrist guard, activating his cloaking devise. Cornelia stared in awe as the humanoid moved past her and around the crate, swiftly moving to the edge of the left wall and scouted around it.

He spotted the two humans from before move out of sight as they walked around many lined up trucks further down.

Spike gestured for Cornelia to come over to him, and soon he was joined by the girl as she leaned past him, peeking around his outline to check if she could spot something her companion might have missed. Her search turned up empty, and she stepped out of the alley as Spike turned off his camouflage.

The hunter scanned the surrounding area before bringing up a map of the bay on the visor in his mask. Once he was certain of the position of the targeted building, he put away the map and turned to address Cornelia… only to realize she wasn't there.

He blinked behind the mask as he turned to search around him for the missing human, but she wasn't anywhere near him.

The hunter growled in annoyance, figuring he should have kept a better look out for the child. He quickly shifted through the different spectrums of his mask before finding the right one. Spike fixed his gaze on the ground, following the small footprints her heat signature had left behind.

He followed the trace, moving over the concrete ground on his way over to one of the piers. A small fishing boat covered most of it from the alien's point of view, but it was clear that the child had wandered over there.

Spike's long strides brought him quickly past the end of the boat and continued down the pier as he spotted Cornelia crouching down in front of a small animal, holding her hand out toward it while she gestured for it to come closer. "Here, kitty-kitty", the girl cooed, a smile plastered on her face. Her attempt only made the cat back further away from the child.

The black cat laid its ears back and its back stood up as the feline hissed at the girl, then quickly darted around her, balancing on the edge of the pier in a desperate attempt to stay as far away from the human as possible. Cornelia pouted in disappointment as she turned to watch the potential new pet run away.

The girl blinked as her line of sight was blocked by a pair of thick dark legs covered in silver metal and fish-netting. She leaned back to look up at Spike who was peering down at her. Cornelia couldn't help but smile sheepishly up at him; perhaps it hadn't been her who had scared the cat away after all.

Rising up to her full height, Cornelia turned to face the hunter. "We have a cat back home, but it always goes hunting for mice in the weekends, so you have to wait until Monday to meet her."

Spike tilted his head with an amused rumbling sound coming from his throat. The girl grinned at him, taking the sound as a confirmation to meeting her cat.

Spike suddenly jerked his head back up before twisting to look down the pier and where the warehouses stood in silence. Cornelia blinked in confusion, leaning slightly to the side so that she would be able to look past the alien. She perked up when she noticed the voices that was headed their way. Her eyes traveled around their surroundings, and she soon grimaced as she realized the pier was completely empty for any places to hide. The fishing boat docked there was currently the only thing to hinder the pair from being spotted.

It was probably the two men from earlier, and if they continued on their current path, they would round the boat and have a clear view of the two misplaced explorers.

Spike cast a look around him, coming to the same conclusion as Cornelia; there was no place to hide.

The Predator could easily just activate his camouflage and go by unnoticed. But that option was currently not of much use, thanks to his little partner in crime. The patrol might not be able to see him, but they would be able to spot the girl within seconds.

Panicking slightly, Spike looked around once more, searching for some sort of possible solution. The hunter stopped. He paused for a moment, and then slowly turned toward the end of the pier, staring at the end a couple of feet away from them.

Cornelia was glancing nervously at the other end of the dock, unaware of Spike as he turned to watch her. She was too busy with figuring out how to hide, so the girl was only vaguely aware of a strong hand grabbing the back of her jacket.

The child wasn't really sure what happened next, only that one moment she was standing on the ground, staring at the end of the fishing boat where the two men would soon appear. And in the next moment she was suddenly flying through the air. She blinked in shock and let out a startled scream, which was cut short the moment she hit the water.

Spike blinked at the comical view, chuckling softly once he heard the splash as the small body hit the surface. He quickly went silent and tapped his wrist guard, his cloaking covered him and the hunter silently knelt down as he fixed his gaze on the other end of the pier just as two men stepped around the edge of the boat.

"That's strange… Was certain I heard something", one of the men commented, his eyes searching the dock for anything out of place. His companion cast a glance around, but ended up with giving his partner an annoyed look. "It was probably just a seagull or some other animal. Let's go back; the boss will get mad if we slack off."

The first man grunted in agreement and the two of them turned and walked back the way they came.

Spike rose back up and deactivated his cloaking the moment the men were out of sight. He continued to stare where the two men had been for a moment, then turned and walked over to the end of the pier. His feet stopped only an inch shy from the edge, and turned to the water, searching for the heat signature of the child.

The Predator froze as he realized there was no heat signature. The ocean was completely absent of any heat, save for a cable on the ocean floor and a few sea creatures.

Spike knelt down and searched to water surrounding him, but the child was nowhere to be seen. Even if she had sunk to the bottom, he still should have been able to get a signature. It hadn't been more than a minute since he threw her, and in that space of time she had simply disappeared. He really should start paying better attention to the girl; every time he let her out of his sight, she managed to sneak away.

The Predator continued to search the dark waters, starting to fear that he might just have killed a child. What if she got eaten by one of those shark creatures? What if she had actually drowned and been carried away with the current? What if-

"Spike, I lost my shoes. Could you get them for me?"

Said Predator blinked in confusion, and then slowly turned his gaze to directly beneath him where Cornelia looked back up at him. Her hands were clinging to a rusty metal ring that was embedded into the side of the pier, her hair and clothes soaked and hanging heavily around her. "I had to kick them off to be able to swim. Can you dive down and get them? Mommy says I'm not allowed to have my head under water, so I can't do it."

The girl missed the relieved sigh that came from the hunter, but continued to stare expectant up at him. A second later, Spike leaned further over the edge and grabbed Cornelia by the back of her jacked before pulling her out of the water and onto the dock beside him. The girl let her feet dangle over the edge as she looked sideways at the alien.

"Can you get my shoes now?"

Spike let out a sound that kind of reminded Cornelia of a snort. Still, he turned his gaze back to the water and leaned forward again, changing his vision and locating the sneakers a fair distance down.

The humanoid stood up to his full height, scanning the waters one more time before he took a few steps backwards. Cornelia turned her head to watch him. He paused for a moment, then darted forward and leaped over the edge, falling into a dive that would put most Olympic divers to shame. The girl only had time to gasp before she was sprayed with seawater, not that it mattered since she couldn't get any wetter.

Cornelia pouted as she brushed her dripping hair away from her face, scowling at the water where Spike had disappeared.

"See? I told you I heard something!"

The child jumped at the voice and twisted her upper body to look behind her where the two men from earlier had just appeared from behind the fishing boat. Cornelia stared wide eyed at the duo as they made their way down the pier toward her. She glanced around, searching for any possible escape route, but came up empty.

"What the-? What is a kid doing out here?" the second man asked in surprise, both of them stopping a couple of feet away from the girl. He eyed her for a moment longer, then added; "And not to mention soaked from head to toe." The first man lifted his hat slightly, glaring at the child suspiciously. "What are you doing here, girly?"

Cornelia glanced back and forth between them, fidgeting with the sleeves on her jacked, uncertain and frightened. "U-umm, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

The first man blinked at her, then offered her a fake smile which made the girl lean further away from him. "Ah, well then, my name is Smith and my friend over her(here) is called Jones. There, now we aren't strangers anymore." The child diverted her eyes from him. "Knowing your name doesn't mean I know you."

The man called 'Smith' stared at the child. He had always thought of children to be really simple minded and stupid, but now he was starting to wonder if he had been wrong.

"It doesn't matter what you think, but when I am asking you a question you are going to answer!" The man frowned down at the child, who cringed at his stern tone. "There is no way a little girl is walking around on the docks in the middle of the night alone… And doing it in soaking wet pajamas makes it even more suspicious."

Cornelia offered no response, which agitated the man even more. Smith gritted his teeth to not shout at the child, only because it could attract attention from the dock workers or their colleagues.

Jones eyed the child as Smith took a threatening step toward her, making the girl lean further away. "You aren't here alone. Who is with you and where are they?"

Again, the girl remained silent, causing what little patience Smith had to snap. He took two hasty steps toward the child, taking notice of how frightened she looked. But before the man could reach her, a hand shot up of the water and grabbed a hold of the concrete edge beside Cornelia. Another hand shot up and closed around the girl's leg. A second later the child was flying over the water again. The child realized what was about to happen and quickly put a hand to her nose and drew a breath before she fell into the water for the second time that night.

While Cornelia was still airborne, Spike hauled himself out of the water and glared at the two shocked humans that stared back at the monster that had emerged in front of them. It only took a second before the pair let out shouts of surprise and horror while backing up and reaching inside their jackets to where their guns were hidden.

Spike reached for two of his throwing knifes at his belt as the men raised their weapons at him. With a swift twist of his wrist, the two knifes flew out of his hand toward the targets.

Cornelia broke the surface and gasped, drawing in new air. She coughed to get the saltwater out of her mouth, and then started pedaling over to the pier again, nearly missing the soft thumps as something hit the ground above her. The girl reached the wall and grabbed onto the metal ring, too tired to continuing swimming, with her clothes weighing her down.

She stayed silent for a while, listening for any sound coming from the dock. She glanced up at the edge, just out of her reach. "Spike? Are you there?"

The Predator jerked his head in the direction of the voice, pausing for a moment before emitting a low growl in affirmation. "Did you scare the men away? Could you help me up if they are?"

Spike turned back to the two bodies lying lifelessly on the ground, a knife embedded in the center of the forehead of both men. The hunter grumbled irritably under his breath. This had been supposed to be a hunt only for information, and two dead members of the organization he was targeting would only make the hunt more difficult. Not that he was complaining all that much, it was always fun to up the challenge.

Still, if- or when they increased the security around the boss, it would be harder to take him out alone. It wasn't that Spike couldn't take out all the people surrounding his target, but rather that he had been keeping a low profile all through his stay on the backwater planet. And a mass murder would no doubt attract unwanted attention.

The hunter swiftly strode over to the still bodies, pulling out his blades and wiped away the blood and brain-tissue before securing them back onto his belt. Next he easily picked up the two men, throwing them over his shoulder as he looked around for a place to hide them. He took a few steps toward the fishing boat, eyeing it for a moment before he crouched and leaped onto the boat.

Placing the bodies inside a wooden crate, Spike rumbled slightly as he closed it and jumped back off the boat. He would have to come back later and dispose of the evidence, but for now, he'd have to get the info he came here for… and maybe get Cornelia out of the water while he was at it.

By the time Cornelia was back on solid ground her face was set in an annoyed frown as she glared at Spike. The alien shifted slightly under her gaze, unsure what to do with the displeased girl.

"I am wet," Cornelia suddenly stated, causing Spike to glance back at her. "And you forgot to pull me up." The hunter started fidgeting with one of his braids, turning away from the child's accusing glare. While he hadn't really forgotten her, she might have slipped his mind for a minute. And besides, he had to hide his kills, but he doubted he could explain that to a child.

His eyes drifted down and landed on the sneakers that were tied to his belt. The hunter quickly untied them and held them out to the girl as a peace offering.

Her frown quickly lifted and the girl stepped forward to retrieve them. "My shoes!" She grabbed the dripping sneakers and studied them for a moment, checking for damage. She nodded, pleased with the fact that her footwear seemed whole. "Thank you", Cornelia said, sending a smile toward Spike, all her previous discontentment forgotten.

Spike turned away and searched the empty harbor while Cornelia put her shoes back on. He accessed his mask and zoomed in on the only hangar in the area with human heat signatures. The hunter waited for his companion to finish before he started on his way, Cornelia hurrying after. A strange squeaking sound made Spike stop, as did the girl behind him.

He waited for a minute, but when he heard nothing more, the Predator continued forward. A second later the squeaking resumed in regular rhythm. He took a couple more steps before stopping again, shortly after the sound also stopped. Spike turned around to stare down at Cornelia, sizing up the dripping wet girl. His gaze landed on her drenched sneakers that had turned into a darkened color because of all the water in the fabric.

Spike groaned as he put a hand on his mask, waiting for a few seconds before he removed it and looked back the girl. He grabbed her by the back of her jacked as he usually did, then placed her on his back, letting go once she was holding on to him. The hunter continued on his way, in a faster pace this time.

Cornelia grinned in glee as her ride reached a warehouse and jumped up the three story building, catching the edge of the roof and lifting himself and his passenger over it. Spike glided across the roof with almost no sound following his steps. He stopped in front of an opened window in the structure, putting the girl back on the floor and crouched down beside her, putting a clawed finger in front of his face plate, a gesture for her to be silent.

The girl nodded and repeated the action. Spike waited a moment longer, then turned back to the window and lay down on his stomach as he crawled closer to the window. Cornelia followed his example and crept up beside him, checking if she had done it right, then turned to look down through the window.

The room below was stored with containers and wooden crates of different sizes and origins; the only light in the room was coming from the moon shining through the windows. A couple of cars were parked by a garage door while their owners stood spread around the warehouse, two men dressed in the same clothes as the patrollers were placed at each entrance in the building, presumably standing guard.

There was a table placed in the middle of the room where a couple of guys were crowding around, all of them looking toward a more formal dressed man on the end of the bench as he was talking. Voices were drifting through the gap in the window frame, but they were a little muffled, so Cornelia had to lean slightly closer and turn her ear to the opening to hear what they were saying.

" – Boat will be arriving in three days with the wares. The money will be handed over once my men have made certain that everything I ordered has been accounted for."

Cornelia turned her head again to get a better view of the meeting beneath her. The formally dressed man (she was just going to call him Dress Man from now on) was mainly in a conversation with the guy with a bowler hat to his left, but the others also voiced their opinion and advice throughout the meeting.

The little spy followed the chat for a while, but was starting to lose interest as the minutes ticked by. The men were mostly talking about deliveries, money transfers, profit and what the most efficient transportation would be. It kind of reminded Cornelia of the conference meeting her father had taken her to once, but that one had lasted for almost two hours. Hopefully this one wouldn't.

"Boss!" The door to one of the exits opened, and a new man stepped in, drawing the attention of the men gathered around the table. "Smith and Jones have failed to report in."

There was a short pause before the Dress man sharply pointed at two of his guards, "You and you, go search for them, radio for backup if needed." The two men nodded and pulled out handguns from their jackets and disappeared out the door. Cornelia leaned in again to look through the glass, only to be dragged back.

She looked sideways at Spike with a questionable gaze. He removed his hand from her leg and made a gesture for her to back up. The girl did as told; climbing back up on her feet once she was sure no one would be able to see her. The hunter simply activated his cloaking and stood up before strolling idly over to the child who was now giving him an annoyed look. "That's cheating", she whispered.

Spike gave her an amused shrug before kneeling down beside her. Cornelia stepped behind him and climbed up on her usual spot on his back. Though, it was kind of weird to do it while he was partly invisible.

Her transport walked over to the edge and jumped off once the two men that had been sent out was far enough away. Spike stuck to the rooftops until he reached the end of the harbor, reminding Cornelia of the heroes in the comic books Ken used to show her. Spike swiftly climbed over the fence surrounding the area and headed back to the highway where he jumped off an overpass and onto a new truck.

The ride back to her house was as fun as the first one, and she actually managed to catch Spikes dreadlocks on multiple occasions. Cornelia had been a little worried about how they were going to get off without their ride stopping, or at least slowing down, but Spike hadn't seen it as a problem and simply jumped off of the speeding vehicle.

They made their way back to the Campbell's residence where Spike climbed up onto the balcony to Cornelia's room and dropped her off.

The girl stood grinning at her companion, but her eyelids had been dropping often on the way back, portraying how tired she actually was. Her clothes were only slightly damp now, thanks to the constant winds and air pressure on top of the truck. Spike studied her for a moment then gave her a slight wave and turned to leave. Cornelia, of course, wouldn't have any of that and grabbed onto his leg to stop him.

"It was really fun tonight! Can you come back tomorrow and we can go explore some more?" the girl pleaded, staring up at him with big innocent eyes that made her look like a puppy asking for a treat.

Spike thought about it for a moment, and then nodded at her, causing the girl to jump up and down in glee. The hunter watched him with an amused grin behind his mask. He had actually been planning to do just that, whether she had asked or not. He liked this human; she was fun and unpredictable. And he needed to lay low for a couple of days. But first, he'd have to clean up after the little mishap at the dock.

He knelt down in front of her and held up an open palm to her. It took a few seconds for Cornelia to understand what he wanted, but she eventually smiled and gave him a high five. Spike rose back up and waved at her once more before jumping over the railing.

Cornelia waved after him as he disappeared behind the trees, and then went back inside her room, changing into a clean and dry pajama before climbing into bed. She hugged her bunny-doll tight to her chest and gave a content sigh, soon drifting off into a deep sleep.

* * *

The familiar green and blue planet lay ahead of the space craft as it went through the last preparations before descent.

A lone Predator stood by the giant window in the outlook, regarding the sight before him as the rest of the crew was getting ready for the hunt. Most of the participants were young-blood who had only been to Earth a few times before, but there were still a handful of capable warriors on the ship that would be acting as over lookers and keep an eye on the lesser experienced hunters.

There was the sound of a door hissing open behind him, but he didn't bother to turn. He already knew who it was. The sound of heavy steps drew closer until they came up to stand at the Predator's side.

Catcher turned his head slightly to send a look to the leader of the ship and his old friend. Fer'gk stared back at the hunter, but stayed silent. It was only when Catcher turned back to watching the planet in front of them that he chose to speak up. "**Are you going to tell me why you return to this planet after just one earth year, Yer'hi'ik?** "

His friend stayed silent, so the captain of the ship continued. "**I should demand that you tell me what you are planning…**" He trailed off as he let out a tired sigh and fixed a knowing look on his friend. "**But I know you are too stubborn and proud to admit anything to me if you don't want it. Still, I will honor your wish and let you go hunting alone.**" The captain put his hand on Catcher's shoulder as a reassuring gesture, then turned and walked back out the door.

He stopped in the doorway as the Predator decided to speak up. "**I left something behind, so I am going to retrieve it."**

Fer'gk paused for a moment, sending a questionable look at his friend, but he had his back turned so the hunter didn't see it. The captain just gave a nod and stepped into the hallway, the door automatically closing behind him. He made his way into the control room where two others of his kind sat. They both greeted him before going back to work.

Their leader went up to a computer screen and typed a few commands into the machine before a 3D-map of earth came up. Fer'gk frowned at the two different markings that had shown up on the hologram. Yer'hi'ik had been in Central America one year earlier, so why was he going to North America to get back whatever it was he had lost?

The Predator shook his head and turned off the hologram, before turning on a microphone that would broadcast through the entire ship. He'd have to wonder about his friend's motives later, right now he had a job to do. "**We will be starting descent in 2 minutes. Get to your stations and be on standby for further orders."**

He turned the device off and turned to look out through the window and stared at the planet that lay ahead of them. Fer'gk gave another sigh. Hopefully Yer'hi'ik knew what he was doing.

"**Start the descent.**"

**To be continued…**

* * *

_Yay! A new chapter done! And Catcher makes an entrance :3_

_I would like to thank both my beta readers; Sarwik and Mckeown, for correcting my stupid mistakes that could have been avoided if I just managed to check what I was writing XD So a big thanks to you two!_


	4. It never rains in California

_Hello there__, dear readers! :D_

_I'm not even going to start explaining why this one took so long, but I will tell you that I had to rewrite half the chapter. XD It's a little shorter than usual and mostly just me fooling around, writing cute and fluffy stuff. _

_Next chapter will move along the plot, (I have a plot? Who knew? O.o) and probably bring in Catcher._

_There is one thing I'm having trouble with though… I can't figure out if I should let someone else in on the fact that there are Aliens running around the neighborhood, so I'm making a poll to see what you guys think… omg, this is really deja'vu ,_

XxX

"_When it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow. ~_ Gilbert K. Chesterton

**Chapter 4: It never rains in California**

A ray of sun shine broke through the small space between two blue curtains, casting a small light into the big bedroom. The girl lying in the queen sized bed squinted as the small streak of daylight hit her face, making her quickly turn around to avoid the blinding light.

Cornelia rolled over, facing away from the window and drew her blanket further up, snuggling into the fabric as she released a contented sigh and kept on sleeping.

A few minutes later there came a light knock on the door before it slowly crept open and Emilia Campbell poked her head through the doorway, sweeping a glance over the quiet bedroom before her eyes landed on her daughter. "Cornelia? Why aren't you up yet?" the woman exclaimed in surprise.

The girl mentioned simply shifted her position and grumbled something unintelligible under her breath. Emilia frowned as she made her way over and sat down on the side of the bed and placed a hand on her daughter's forehead. "Hm, doesn't seem like you have a cold at least. Is there something wrong, sweetie? Are you feeling sick, maybe?" the woman asked in concern.

Cornelia shifted again and slowly opened her eyes to peer up at her mother, "I'm sleepy." The woman stared down at her, not really comprehending how her daughter could be tired when she went to bed at the usual time last night.

"Well, breakfast is ready, and if you don't hurry you might miss your dad before he goes to work." When Cornelia didn't react she also added, "We're having bacon and eggs."

The blonde perked up and stared in awe at her mother, blue eyes wide as she asked, "With toast?" Emilia chuckled and gave her a light nod. Cornelia was out of her bed and in the doorway in five seconds flat, not bothering to wait for her mother as she stormed down the stairs and through the kitchen door to where Aaron sat with a news paper spread out before him.

He looked up as Cornelia proceeded with climbing up on her chair at her side of the table where her breakfast sat waiting for her.

Aaron smiled as he put down his coffee on the table and sent a smile over to her daughter, who missed it, too busy reaching for the saltshaker to pay him any attention. "Sleep well?" he questioned as Cornelia started cutting up her egg. His reply came in an automatic nod, and the man knew that all further hope of communication with the eight-year-old was a lost cause.

Emilia wandered into the kitchen a minute later, picking up Aaron's plate and glass on her way to the counter. He gave her a quick "thank you" and then turned his attention back to his daughter who was already half-way done with her plate. The man gave a quick laugh before addressing her, "Cornelia, you'd better slow down before you get sick."

The warning went right over her head as she reached over and hurriedly gulped down the rest of her milk.

Aaron frowned at his daughter, pouting at the fact that he was ignored. A sly grin slowly crept over his features as he lifted back up his paper and pretended to be reading one of the articles with a soft humming sound. "Says here that a farmer believed he saw an UFO near his farm yesterday~" He dragged out, already expecting Cornelia's reaction as her fork fell to her plate with a clink and she jumped out of her seat and ran up beside him.

His daughter had started to show an interest in the universe, UFO's and aliens after returning from her trip in Central America, which resulted in an instant reaction every time either were mentioned. This, of course, was something a certain father would exploit when required.

"Where? Where?" she questioned as she tried to peer past her father and over to the paper in his hands.

Her father smirked down at her and gave her a slight nudge with the folded paper. "Tricked you," he informed her playfully. Cornelia stared at him for a moment in confusion before her eyes narrowed and she glared at him. "Mom! Dad lied!" The girl turned to her mother and pointed an accusing finger to the man in question.

"Well you were ignoring your beloved father, what did you expect me to do?" Aaron defended as Emilia gave him an amused glance over her shoulder.

"Aaron, don't lie to your daughter. Cornelia, it's rude to ignore people."

Emilia sighed softly for herself as Cornelia went back to her seat and Aaron started to pester his daughter again. '_I swear, sometimes it seems like I have two children instead of just one_', the woman thought to herself as she looked sideways at the clock hanging on the wall.

"Dear, if you don't hurry you will be late for work again." Aaron lazily turned to watch the clock as the seconds ticked on by, and let out a long sigh and turned back to his daughter with the most pitiful look he could manage. Cornelia looked up and waited for her father to start the same game they had taken to play every morning at breakfast.

"I don't wanna go to work…" Aaron dragged out, and Cornelia sat up straighter while she waited for him to continue. "I humbly request permission from the princess of the Campbell residence to stay at home and skip work."

Cornelia held her head up high and closed her eyes, playing along. "Permission denied!"

Not skipping a beat, Aaron sent her a pained look, though his eyes twinkled in amusement. "Why, my lovely lady?"

The part time princess paused to figure out her reason for the day, then gave a short nod and addressed her father again. "Because you need to earn money so that you can pay the taxes to the royal family."

Aaron lifted an eyebrow at her, "Your allowance, you mean?"

"I mean what I said."

The man opened his mouth to reply, but Emilia gently nudged him in the shoulder and pointed to the clock. He sighed before standing up and walked around the table to where Cornelia sat and knelt down beside her, taking her hand and kissing it. "Then I must take my leave, dear princess." Aaron winked at her before moving out of the kitchen and over to the hallway to put on his jacket and shoes.

Cornelia jumped out of her chair, following her father. She stood waiting until he was set to go, then stepped forward and gave him a hug, which he returned after kneeling to get to her height. "Have fun today, I'll try to get done early today so that we can do something together tonight." Cornelia smiled and nodded at the suggestion, then moved aside as Emilia moved up and gently kissed her husband.

"Drive safely", she told him once they broke contact and Aaron opened the front door. "I will," came the reply as he walked over to his car that was parked in the driveway. Emilia would still shake her head at the expensive sports car her husband had invested in for a couple of years back.

A sun yellow Lamborghini Murcielago 2002 sat waiting as her husband unlocked the car and stepped inside, waiting with closing the door until he had thrown his two ladies a quick, "love you." The two of them repeated the phrase before Aaron closed the door and started the engine. Watching as the pricy car rolled out onto the street, Cornelia waved as Emilia shook her head again.

What in the world he had been thinking when he had bought that car was beyond her. Surely it was a guy thing.

Emilia looked up as the world around her was covered in shadow; a series of dark clouds she hadn't noticed earlier was not covering the sun. "Looks like it's going to rain." Cornelia also looked up, a small smile on her lips.

The woman took a hold of her daughter's hand and lead them both back inside. They walked back into the kitchen where Cornelia quickly finished her breakfast then moved over to her mother to help her with the dishes.

The girl looked out through the window from where she stood on a stool, drying a wet plate with a green towel. It had already started to rain outside, a soft drizzle transforming into a harsh shower that made every surface wet.

After the two females were done with everything back into place, Cornelia skipped happily up the stairs to her bedroom.

Once she was there she ran up to her closet door and pulled out some clothes before darting out to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. She exited a few minutes later, dressed in a light green summer dress with a red flower decorating the chest. Her white flip-flops clanked as she walked back to her bedroom.

First thing she did once she entered was to briefly open her balcony door, just enough for the constant sound of falling rain to enter the room. Cornelia stood there for a while, simply watching and listening as the rain washed everything away. She smiled softly, then stepped over to her toy box and started searching through it.

The girl first picked out a thin red blanket and then a set of tea cups and plates. Spreading the blanket out over the floor, she smoothed out every wrinkle she could find before setting the tea set out over it. Once she was pleased with how it looked, Cornelia grabbed the tea pot and went out into the bathroom to fill it with water.

She would have used the one in the kitchen, but she wanted to surprise her mother. Once it was full, Cornelia put on the top and went back into her room.

What she found in her bedroom on the other hand, was certainly not what she had expected.

She stopped in the doorway and stared at the dripping wet alien standing just inside the now wide-open balcony door. Spike was drenched from head to toe, and the water was now currently forming a puddle on her floor.

He turned to look at her once she entered; he lifted his hand and gave her a weak wave. A very human gesture, Cornelia noted.

She quickly went inside and put down the tea pot on the blanket, before turning and walking back outside without bothering to inform her unexpected visitor where she was going. Walking back into the bathroom, Cornelia opened a drawer and pulled out a couple of towels.

Running back into her room, the girl dumped the cloths to the floor and looked up to find Spike studying her music box, turning it in his hands as he tried to find a use to the device. Cornelia grabbed two of the towels and went over to him, offering one of them to the hunter who accepted it with a grateful nod.

"You should use an umbrella or at least a jacket if you are out in the rain. If you don't, you'll get a cold," Cornelia lectured the alien with a scowl, trying to show how she disapproved of his actions, but only managed to look cute.

Spike snorted as he started to rub the cloth over his helm and dreadlocks. The human gave him a short glare before she threw her own towel on the ground where the puddle was. Seeing that it alone wasn't enough, Cornelia strode over to get the rest of the cloths.

Spike watched the child as she threw a new towel near his feet; she then proceeded with mopping up random trails of water from the floor. He simply shrugged and went back to wiping water off of his arms.

The hunter had already been on his way when the rain had started to come down, quickly disabling his cloaking devise, forcing him to take a slower and stealthier route as not to be seen. Luckily he hadn't been too far away from the Campbell residence and got there without incident… Well, if you looked past the thing with the old lady who almost managed to throw a cat at his face when he had passed by a backdoor.

Not one of the best surprise attacks he had received in his lifetime, but a surprise nonetheless.

Spike looked himself over once he was done drying his legs, then dumped the wet towel on top of Cornelia's head as she was about to run out with the rest of the wet clothing. She stopped in her tracks and shook her head slightly, readjusting her new hat so that she could see. The girl sent him a smug grin before dashing through the door and into the bathroom, looking like a small ghost from behind.

Lifting his arm, Spike looked down at the blinking computer console at his wrist guard and started tapping on it.

He activated the cloaking device, watching as his figure became blurry and see-through. But it didn't last more than a few seconds before a series of electric jolts went through his armor and the camouflage blinked on and off a couple of times before disappearing completely. Spike let out an annoyed huff, letting his arm fall back to his side.

He was probably still too damp to use the gadget.

Looking up, the Predator cast another look around the room, before his eyes landed on the tea party set out on the floor.

He strode over to it and crouched down at the edge of the blanket, picking up one of the cups as he studied the object.

Cornelia chose that moment to walk back into the room. She stopped and stared at her guest from the doorway for a minute, then closed the door behind her and walked over to him with a big smile spread across her face. The child promptly sat down on the blanket across from the hunter and lifted up the pot filled with water up toward her guest, who stared confused back at her.

Waiting a few more seconds, it became apparent to Cornelia that Spike didn't know what to do. Cornelia cleared her throat and readjusted her voice to sound more sophisticated before she asked, "Would you care for some tea, Sir Spike?"

Looking more puzzled than before, Spike stared at her before looking down at the small cup he was holding. Slowly, the predator held out his cup, not caring that he must have looked incredibly uncertain, which he really was, but it wasn't something his race liked to display. As a reply, Cornelia smiled and poured him some water before she pulled back and filled some water into her own cup.

Spike stared down into the small object in his hand, not really sure what to do with it. He looked back to Cornelia for instructions, and found her putting said object to her mouth and take a sip.

Putting down his cup, Spike reached up to his mask and disconnected the tubes before removing it, aware of Cornelia staring at him the whole time. He was kind of disappointed that he didn't get a reaction from her, though she was close to ogling him at that moment. The Predator, like the rest of his race, had always thought the human reaction to their appearance was hilarious, so they did it every once in a while to humor themselves.

Flexing his mandibles, Spike let out a smooth clicking sound before lifting the cup anew and tilted his head back as he emptied its content in one swipe.

"Would you like some more?" Cornelia asked, holding up the pot once more. Spike accepted and looked down into the water as the girl put the pot back onto the blanket.

The hunter had been about to empty the cup again, but abruptly halted as he heard the door open. "Cornelia, I cut up some fruits if you'd like so-"

When he looked back at it, he was surprised as to how he would have dropped his guard enough to realize before that someone was coming. But what surprised him even more, was that a small human _child_ managed to react faster than an alien hunter who had been living his whole life perfecting his profession.

In only a second Cornelia was at the door and pushing against it with her whole body, not allowing it to open more than an inch.

Emilia was beyond startled when the door almost flew back into her face, and she had to quickly readjust the bowl of fruit she was holding for it not to slip from her grasp. She had managed to stop the door before it actually collided with her nose, but she had to strain her hand to not let it close fully.

"Cornelia? What are you doing?" Emilia asked in bewilderment.

"You can't come in!" Cornelia nearly shouted in a panicked voice from behind the wood, she also seemed to have said something more, but it was near a whisper, so the confused mother didn't quite catch it.

"Is something wrong?" Emilia let worry drip into her voice as she looked down at the door handle where her hand rested.

"No, but you can't come in yet!" With a final push, Cornelia managed to shove the door closed. "Wait a minute, and don't come inside until I tell you!" Emilia did as instructed and stared worriedly at the white door in front of her as she listened to her daughter rush around on the other side.

It got quiet for a few seconds, then the door slowly opened and Cornelia poked her head out. "Okay, you can come in now."

Emilia blinked in confusion as the door fully opened and she cast a look around the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except…

"Were you making a tea party?" Emilia smiled as she thought she found the reason for her daughter's strange behavior.

Cornelia looked from her mother to the blanket with a calculation look before she nodded and gave her mother a bright smile, though it seemed a little forced. "Yeah, it was supposed to be a surprise," the child said, not really lying. She had planned to surprise her mother, but had forgotten about it once Spike had arrived.

"Well, since you already have the drinks, I guess I'll add the food," Emilia told her daughter and placed the fruit bowl down in the middle of the blanket and sat down with one of the unused cups.

The woman cast another look around the bedroom, her eyes landing on a jacket that had been forgotten on a chair. "Cornelia, sweetie, could you please put that jacket back where it belongs?"

The girl looked up and walked over to it. She lifted it up, and then turned an uncertain gaze toward her closet door. A sideways glance told the girl that her mother was currently busy with placing the 'food' on the plates and pouring the 'tea', so Cornelia took the chance and opened the door, but not any more than necessary.

Holding up the jacket, Spike gingerly took it and gave it a curious look, not certain what to do with it. Cornelia closed the door, leaving the hunter to find his own answers as she went back to the tea party with her mother, the two of them having a great time as the rain continued to pour down outside.

**To be continued…**


	5. Extra Lessons

_Here you have it, guys :D _

_I would just take a moment to thank all my readers for your patience with me and for your comments and reviews that you leave me with. I'd like you to know what I grin like an idiot whenever I read one :D So again, thank you for your support. You may now carry on doing what you came here to do, read on, my dears. _

_Ps. A special thanks to my two beta readers, a cookie for both of you._

* * *

_We all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school._ ~ Peter De Vries

**Chapter 5: Extra lessons **

Cornelia put the last piece of her tea set in the dishwasher and closed the door, then watched as her mother pushed a couple of buttons and started the machine.

"I'm going to go play in my room," the girl informed her mother before dashing off to rescue her visitor from her closet. Once inside her room, Cornelia shut the door and ran up to her closet and opened it.

She peered inside and came face-to-face with Spike, who was crouching down in the small space. When he saw her, he gingerly lifted his arm and offered her the jacket she had handed him before.

"Hang it up," Cornelia instructed and pointed to a series of duds sticking out on the wall. Spike did as told and left the coat in the small room before stepping out, but cast a look around first, just to be on the safe side. "Mom said that she was going to make some cookies. Do you want some when they are done?"

Spike eyed her for a moment. Had he still been a part of society, he would surely be an expert on the planet earth, because he seriously doubted many of his kind knew what a cookie was, or would have liked it for that matter. But no, a few decades on the planet drove him to try new things, and while he still couldn't stand eating the plants humans liked so much, he now ate other things than just meat.

And cookies, preferably with chocolate, were one of the things he had absolutely nothing against.

The hunter gave a short nod before closing the closet door behind him. Cornelia grinned and repeated the nod. Spike wandered around the room for a bit, but kept his gaze on the girl who had suddenly fallen into a serious thinking pose. If he had understood this human's strange personality by now, then she was bound to jump into action soon.

True enough, a short while later Cornelia lifted her head, a wide smile on her face. She quickly darted over to her toy box and started rummaging through it, though it didn't last long before she closed it and ran over to her dresser and opened each drawer.

Spike continued to watch her as she went over to her closet and dragged out a small backpack, which she shortly after started throwing out a series of school books from. When at last every book was spread out on the floor, Cornelia lifted the pink pack with a confused look on her face as she peered into the empty bag.

"Mom!" Cornelia suddenly called as she dropped her backpack and sprinted toward the door and opened it, but only leaned out instead of going further. "Mom, where is my sketch book?"

There was a slight pause before another voice replied, "Check your backpack!"

Cornelia frowned at the reply and opened her mouth again. "It's not there! It's not anywhere!"

"Did you remember to take it with you when school ended?"

The girl was about to shout a reply, but paused and thought about it for a few seconds. She had brought it to school a couple of times so that she could draw in art class, and now that she thought about it, she had been in a hurry to start the vacation, so forgetting some of her stuff had a high probability.

"Mom, could we go to the school and get my book?"

Emilia sighed as she held an egg close to the edge of a bowl, "The school is closed, sweetie. I can find some papers if you want to draw." Giving the egg a quick hack against the edge, it split in two and the woman emptied its contents, checking for eggshell pieces before moving on to the next one.

"But I need my sketch book, all my drawings are in there, and I _need_ them!" she heard her daughter whine.

The woman just shook her head with an amused smile playing across her features. "You should have remembered to take it with you then. Now you won't get it back until the end of summer."

Emilia couldn't help but chuckle as her daughter let out a strangled groan in frustration and closed the door to her room with a little more force than necessary.

Cornelia glared sourly at the closed door before her, like it was the cause of all her troubles. She was brought out of her pouting when she heard the restrained laughter behind her. Turning, she switched her withering stare at the hunter who seemed to be having a splendid time with her situation.

"It's not nice to laugh at people," Cornelia told him off, crossing her arms over her chest to appear sterner. Her frown gradually disappeared as she continued to stare at her humored guest, and her face brightened with a huge grin. "I know! You can take me to school, and then we can get my book!"

Spike turned to stare at her, contemplating the idea for a minute, then gave her a shrug.

"But we have to wait until tonight, because mom probably won't let me go." Cornelia nodded to herself to confirm her idea, and then grinned up at Spike. "I'll show you my classroom; we have drawings, posters, plants, dolls that my teacher made and two gold fishes called Brain-eater and Pony Princess."

Cornelia shrugged off the look Spike was giving her. "The boys got to name one while the girls named the other."

"Cornelia, I need to go borrow some sugar from the neighbors, do you think you can watch the house for a few minutes?" Emilia's voice called up, to which her daughter was quick to reply, "Yes!"

The blonde girl walked out of her room and hung onto the railing as she came to the staircase, watching as her mother started putting on her shoes. "Remember to do the secret entrance code when you get back," Cornelia reminded her as she moved down the stairs. Emilia smiled and kissed her on the forehead once she was close enough. "Of course."

The woman peered out the door where it was still raining, but was now more of a light drizzle. Once Emilia had grabbed an umbrella and was out the door, Cornelia reached up and locked it like she was supposed to do when home alone. Not that she was actually alone, but her mother didn't need to know that.

"Spike! Hurry down here, I need to show you the house before mom gets back!" the girl shouted and charged into the big living room, staring expectantly up the staircase. After a few seconds, Spike walked into view and started looking curiously around him. He had been in a couple human houses before, but this one was probably one of the biggest. Every room seemed to have big open space and a couple windows to light up the interior décor. The living room was in a light wooden color, accompanied by a few green plants here and there.

Moving down the stairs, the hunter fully realized how wide they were, probably enough for at least three grown humans to walk side by side without bumping into each other.

A big widescreen was placed in the corner of the room together with a couple of wooden brown chairs and couch. Other human furniture was placed around the room, along with some paintings and photos hanging on the walls.

Spike made a soft sound in the back of his throat, pleased with what he had seen so far. Cornelia, wasting no more time, grabbed onto his hand and led him through an opening that lead into the kitchen where ingredients and gadgets lay out on the benches. While the surface had a black color the doors and shelves where in a bright white color.

"This is where we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner," Cornelia informed, mainly gesturing to a wooden dinner table in the middle of the room. Spike nodded, and threw a quick look over the room again before Cornelia continued on. She showed him the two bathrooms; very proud of a huge bathtub where she often drowned in foam. Her parent's bedroom; where the family used to watch Saturday morning cartoons. The washing room, combined with storage. The garage was connected to the house, sparing the duo from walking out and around. And of course the giant garden where Cornelia pointed out the trampoline, the bubble bath, the swings, and Emilia's flowerbeds.

They soon ended up back in the living room where Cornelia insisted on showing her alien visitor more rooms, which said alien gave her a disbelieving look, there was still _more_? How big was this place?

However, the hunter was saved from his tour guide by a series of knocks from the front door. It sounded kind of strange, like a specific type of rhythm. Cornelia looked up at him with a pained look. "It's mom, you got to hide again."

Sparing no time arguing, Spike lifted his hand and tapped in a combination on his wrist computer. Seconds later he was fading out until there was only a faint blurry outline left.

Satisfied, Cornelia moved over to the front door where the knocking resumed. Once it was unlocked Emilia stepped through, now holding a cup filled with the white powdery substance called sugar. She handed it to her daughter who took it while her mother closed the now wet umbrella and moved on to the kitchen, Cornelia trailing behind her.

Emilia gestured for the cup, and Cornelia happily handed it over, watching as the woman started mixing the ingredients which would soon transform into delicious chocolate cookies. Just thinking about it made her mouth water.

Emilia paused for a moment to look over her shoulder, where Cornelia stood staring transfixed at the bowl, a thin line drool traveling down the side of her mouth. It took all the willpower the woman could master to not start laughing outright.

"It's going to take a while before they are done. Isn't there anything you want to do while waiting?"

Snapping out of her daze, Cornelia stared at her as the words registered and she gave a short nod before darting into the living room.

Emilia turned back to her cooking, but stopped a few seconds later and turned back around staring at the spot beside the doorway, swearing she had seen some sort of disorientation in the air when Cornelia had raced out. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she went back to adding the chocolate bits. It had probably just been the hot air from the stove.

* * *

The cookies were soon done and together, Cornelia and Emilia sat down in front of the TV, watching one of the newest movies Aaron had bought while munching on the bakery sweetness and drinking milk.

And for some strange reason, the number of cookies decreased much faster than what the two of them was eating. Then there was that episode where Emilia had reached out to grab one that sat in solitude at the edge of the tray, only for it to disappear before she reached it. It didn't help that she had been busy staring at the screen while it happened.

After the movie ended Emilia took the rest of the snacks back to the kitchen, saving some for her husband. Still, it seemed like a few of them were missing when she turned back after cleaning up the counter.

Strange things seemed to keep happening throughout the whole day. There was the same disorientated air as before, showing up at different places, but only for a short while each time. Decoration and all kinds of different stuff got rearranged or were misplaced, along with the TV-remote disappearing, leading on to the fact that the TV changed channels on random intervals.

Cornelia, who was the one actually watching, obviously didn't think this was a strange occurrence. She even complained out loud and told the TV to change back to the channel it was on before. It came as a great surprise to the mother when the electronic devise obeyed the command.

By the end of the day Emilia was beginning to suspect that their house was actually haunted, which didn't make any sense since it was completely new and they had never had any problems before. Now she was contemplating if she should tell her husband, who would soon be home from work.

It wasn't that the woman was afraid of Aaron not believing her, because he most certainly would, it was more his reaction she worried about.

He would either get extremely excited and start his own ghost hunt (with Cornelia as a sidekick), or he would become worried about his family's safety and call the ghost busters. Emilia wasn't overreacting, he really would call them. The only uncertainty was if he already had the number or if he would bribe/blackmail his contacts into finding it.

Emilia took a new sip from her coffee, her eyes roaming around the room for any unusual signs. She put the mug back on the table and sighed softly. For the moment, she would refrain from telling Aaron anything, and hopefully whoever or… whatever it was, would leave.

As dusk came Emilia took a look around the house, but everything seemed to be back to normal. The TV had stopped randomly changing channels, no more objects were misplaced and the disoriented figure were nowhere to be seen. The blonde let out a relieved sight and sat down together with her daughter who was watching a cartoon.

Just then the front door opened and Emilia tensed, but let her shoulders sag back down as Aaron came into the living room with a smile on his face, demanding a hug from his ladies.

In the end Emilia kept the weird observations to herself and went about serving dinner. At one point she noticed Cornelia staring, no, _glaring_ at the newly filled cookie jar on the counter, but when she turned to look she didn't notice anything to be worth glaring at.

After dinner the family gathered around in the living room, sitting down to play a game of monopoly. Emilia cast a look to the plate she had filled with cookies for her husband, was it her imagination or had the number decreased again?

As the night came around the family was just done watching a program on TV as Aaron gave a thoughtful to the clock displaying on the DVD player. "It's getting late, maybe we should think about going to bed." He turned to his daughter beside him who, strangely enough, beamed at the hint and jumped off the couch and darted up the stairs. "I'll put on my pajamas!"

The two parents were left in a stunned silence before he turned two wide eyes toward his wife, "Did our daughter just willingly go to bed without any pleading, request to stay up longer or a wild story made up on the spot?"

After Emilia gave a small uncertain nod and Aaron looked down at the cookie in his hand which he had been about to take a bite of. "What in the world did you put in these things?"

* * *

Cornelia lay under the covers, staring up at the dark ceiling as the clock on her nightstand continued to pass the time. She could hear her parents through the wall as they got ready for bed, so she kept on waiting until the sounds died down and the house was quiet.

The girl waited a few more minutes before throwing the blankets off to reveal the child fully clothed and ready for a new night out.

She put a few pillows under remade bed, just in case her parents came to check on her, and then tip toed over her closet where her backpack lay hidden beneath a thin jacket that she hurriedly put on and threw the backpack over her shoulder. Cornelia casted a last glance over the room before stepping over to the balcony door and exited the house.

Spike sat on the thick railing and gave her a short wave as the girl closed the door behind her. She turned to give him a disapproving frown; "It isn't nice to take all the cookies for yourself." The alien made an effort in avoiding the stern glare he was receiving, trying not to appear too guilty.

Cornelia gave up after a while and sighed as she walked over to him and climbed up on the railing beside him, careful to not lose her balance. After she had safely moved over to hanging on her visitors back, the alien stood up and leaped off and away from the balcony and down on the moist grass. It had stopped raining a while ago, but drops of water still hanged around on the leaves and grass, but luckily not enough to mess up his cloaking again.

The girl on his back gave directions that he dutifully followed, which ended with them getting lost a couple of times while jumping from roof to roof on transport vehicles. At one point the hunter had to walk, leaping from rooftop to rooftop to avoid other humans, Cornelia hadn't complained about that part, and was laughing with glee every time they were flying through the air, something that destroyed the point of sneaking around unnoticed.

After several detours and a quick onceover of a town map Cornelia brought with her, the duo finally arrived by Cornelia's school. It was a big white building with many windows and a huge playground, along with a fence to ensure that the kids didn't run off into traffic while no one was watching. It looked like a cozy place, Spike decided. He had been traveling around a lot, and there were far worse places his charge could have been spending her time.

The girl on his back was getting impatient, and edged him on. After leaping over the locked gate, Spike checked the area for any witnesses, and then walked up to the locked front door, wondering what to do next.

"There is a window in the back that is always open; my teacher says that the lock is broken on it", Cornelia informed as she noticed the problem her new friend was having with the door. Spike simply nodded and made his way along the wall, glad that he hadn't needed to break down the piece of wood that stood between him and the inside.

When he got around the last corner he glanced up at the many windows decorating the wall, and then turned to look at Cornelia, waiting for further instructions. After thinking it through for a minute, the girl pointed to a window a couple feet away, "I think it's that one."

A second later Spike was busy prying open the window, something that proved more difficult than it should have been. The duo heard a low cracking noise as the alien finally managed to open it, the rest was a piece of cake as Spike held the glass open and climbed inside. Cornelia requested to walk by herself from there, so the hunter bent down and let the child jump off.

The hunter was about to move on, but stopped as he noticed Cornelia staring at the window beside the one they had climbed through. "Hmm, actually I think this is the window with the broken lock," she told him, pointing to it. True enough, there was a tiny crack that kept the window from fully closing and the lock mechanism was disabled.

Spike looked back to their entrance and shook his head. Now the school had two broken windows.

The alien looked up as he heard a set of footsteps lead away from him, quickly following his smaller charge as she turned a corner and skipped up a flight of stairs.

"My classroom is on the top floor. We've got the best view in the whole school," Cornelia bragged as she climbed another set of stairs. Spike walking at a casual pace behind her.

They reached the top and the girl turned and stormed along the right corridor where she stopped in front of a door marked with a green paper. She reached for the handle, trying to pry it open, but soon realized that the door was locked. Cornelia stared pleadingly up at her partner as he walked up beside her.

Spike sighed and shrugged his shoulders before gently shoving the child out of the way and knelt down to study the lock in question. He reached to a small pocket in his belt and pulled out two thin metal sticks. Cornelia watched with interest as her friend started to pick the lock, and finished in no more than five seconds.

The alien put back his equipment where they belonged and opened the door for Cornelia before stepping aside. She gave him an awed look before rushing inside and up to a shelf of lockers in the back of the room. It was a very color filled room, with drawings and pictures decorating the wall, a couple of plants were spread around, but most out of reach for children around Cornelia's height.

Spike stood in the doorway as he studied the desks and the blackboard that still had the message "summer break" written in big bold letters on it. His eyes stopped at a glass case filled with water, two gold fishes swimming around inside. The alien assumed this was Brain-eater and Pony princess.

Casting a glance over to the girl, Spike noticed she was still searching through her locker for her book, so he decided to check out the rest of the floor while she was busy. He stepped away from the doorway and traveled down the hall, automatically taking note of the escape routes and hiding spaces, 'cause you never really knew when you needed them.

The last door he came too had a small window in it that showed a section of the rooftop, so he quickly lock-picked the door and stepped out into the night air. Spike let the door stand open as he trudged over the roof and to the tall railing that was there to stop anyone from falling over. Cars were passing on the road by the school grounds, along with a few persons who decided to rather use their legs and were walking on the sidewalk.

The sky was starting to clear, and only a few dark clouds lingered, signaling that it would be another sunny day in the morning. A few stars twinkled in between the clouds, and the sky was a rich blue color that calmed the world. Spike stood watching with a sense of peace filling his chest. This planet really was beautiful. You just had to stop for a moment to notice it.

All the muscles in his body suddenly tensed and a feeling of foreboding filled the air.

As an intergalactic hunter, you quickly developed a sense of danger that would warn you when something was wrong. This sense would save your life more times than you could count, and this very sense was blaring at red alert all through the predator's body.

Even so, Spike wasn't fast enough as he whipped around, only to receive a powerful blow to his upper body that sent him crashing into the wall beside the door to the hallway. He was quick to recover, but not enough before a hand found its way to his neck and pinned him to the wall.

When he managed to compose himself, he looked to his attacker that was cloaked in the same camouflage that Spike himself was so found of using. He was also taller, not to mention more powerful than the predator now pinned to the wall that was now starting to show cracks.

Spike felt a chill called fear run through him. He had been so careful, covered all his tracks. Moved frequently, never staying in a place to long, avoided the most popular hunting spots. But he had still been found. The camouflaged hunter's cloak slowly slid away and Spike got a better look at his attacker, and it made his success of escaping even less likely.

This hunter almost reeked of experience and more power and wisdom than the younger hunter would get in some hundreds of years, maybe even a millennia. But that was not what worried him the most. It was the fact that this veteran hunter was _angry. _The hand around his neck was strained to not cut his air supply completely off, and the death glare he was receiving would probably have had lesser hunters to go down on their knees and beg for mercy.

"**What are you doing here?**"

Spike blinked behind his mask as he stared at his counterpart. The words carried along a threat that told him that for his own good, he better answer. But he wasn't sure if he meant here as on earth, in the city or on top of a school building.

"**Your captain assured me that you rookies would be staying in the city south of here, care to explain why you aren't following his orders?"** the veteran went on when he didn't get an answer after the first seconds, tightening his grip on Spike's neck.

Still, Spike was staring at him with a bewildered look that was hidden behind his mask, but he felt a faint pang of relief and hope. Was it maybe that this predator hadn't come to hunt him down and kill him, but had mistaken his identity as one of the newer hunters that was often given a tour of their future hunting ground.

Being offered a free way out, Spike finally gathered his senses and opened his mouth, **"I was -"**

He didn't get any further before they heard a set of feet running toward them, along with a gleeful feminine voice calling his new nickname.

"Spike! I found it! I found my sketch book, it was in the back. But I wanna show you my drawings of-"

The rest of her sentence trailed off as Cornelia came out the open door and turned to where the two Aliens stood. The bright smile she had on disappeared instantly and she came to an abrupt stop, staring wide eyed at the Predator pinning her partner to the wall. He mouth hung slightly open, and her face was clearly showing how shocked she felt.

The trio all stared at each other as the minutes ticked by. Cornelia's arms hang loosely by her sides and the small book she had been holding slipped from her grip and clattered noisily to the ground, but it seemed like she hadn't noticed as she kept staring at the taller alien.

Spike was beginning to feel the fear and uncertainty fall over him again, but not for himself. What was the veteran going to do to the human? While it was dishonorable to kill a child, it was never a certainty that the hunter would let it go.

This was his fault, he should have known better than to hang around with a human child and put her in danger. If it came down to it, Spike would just have to buy Cornelia time to escape, though he himself would probably be defeated and killed. But as long as his charge got away, it'd be worth it.

Cornelia opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. A second later she opened it again and Spike had to strain his hearing to catch what she said.

"C-Catcher?"

The grip on his neck lessened slightly, and Spike stared at the veteran with shock. Cornelia had briefly told him about this predator, the one who had given her the leaf stone, the one she had met before him in the jungle a year ago. This was him.

Cornelia took a hesitant step closer to them, paused to check if it got any reaction, and then took another step. She continued with this until she only was a few feet away from the two aliens. Spike noticed that the veteran hadn't taken his eyes off the girl since she came through the door, but he was certain he was also keeping the rest of his senses focused on his captive.

Both the hunters were quite surprised when Cornelia suddenly burst into tears and ran the last feet before throwing her hands around Catcher and clutching him in a death grip, as if afraid the alien would disappear if she didn't hold him tight enough. The veteran froze up and stared down at the sobbing girl, but he softened a bit when he heard the words she was saying in between her sniffing.

"I –_hick_- missed you –_sniff_- so m-much."

Catcher sent Spike a warning look before slowly removing his hand from his neck. Once free, Spike slumped back against the wall and started rubbing his sore neck. He watched from the corner of his eye as the other hunter put a hand on top of the girl's head, patting her lightly. She only tightened her grip (if such was even possible) and cried harder, occasionally telling the Alien how she had been looking forward to his return.

Spike looked away, feeling as if he was interfering with a very personal moment between the human and the Yautja.

After a couple of minutes, Cornelia finally calmed down and let go of Catcher, but still stood close to him.

"You gotta tell me everything you have been doing after you left, and then I'll tell you what I have been doing," she told him while wiping away the last of her tears. Catcher just gave her a last pat on the head which caused Cornelia to smile brightly up at him.

Finally remembering the two of them wasn't alone, Cornelia looked over at Spike who was staring up at the night sky, pointedly ignoring them.

"Oh, by the way, that's Spike," Cornelia informed, pointing to the hunter who snapped back to the present and worriedly glanced over to the veteran who was glaring daggers at him again.

"**What's your name?"** Catcher questioned, and he clearly didn't mean the nickname Cornelia had given him.

"**Kor'h",** Spike replied, then instantly regretted it. Why had he given his real name? He was on the bad blood list.

Catcher actually thought the name sounded a bit familiar, but that would make sense if they had been traveling on the same ship, so he thought nothing more of it. Lady luck seemed to like Spike today.

"**Yer'hi'ik."**

It took a few seconds, but then Spike understood that he had just been given the name of his past attacker. Similar to his counterpart, he had heard of the name before, the only difference was that Spike knew for certain where he had heard about it.

"**Are you the one who along with only one other team member took down a hard-meat queen?" **Kor'h asked with awe. It had been his favorite story, a true story about two hunters who alone managed to take down one of the creature that should have been impossible to take down without at least ten experienced hunters and a good strategy. And then two newly blooded hunters managed to kill it. Kor'h had heard the story many times, and he was still in awe every time he heard it.

He'd have to try to tell it to Cornelia in the future, just so she may be see how awesome the alien beside her actually was.

Catcher was staring at the youngling as he seemed lost in thought, but nodded once he looked over to the predator in question, confirming his suspicions.

Looking down to his side, Catcher noticed that Cornelia had ventured over to the book she dropped and picked it up. She brushed off the dust and went through the pages before she found what she was looking for and jogged back to Catcher and thrust the opened book up for him to see.

The Alien couldn't help but let a small smile grace him as he looked down at the drawing of a small blonde girl and a tall creature in metal armor walking through a forest. It wasn't a professional drawing, the lines were uneven and some of the colors went outside of the line. Still, it was a good drawing none the less, and it was obvious the girl had worked hard and long on it.

Catcher gave her an approving nod which caused her smile to brighten and ran around the roof cheering about how her friend and guardian liked her drawing. Spike and Catcher simply watched her, both of them thinking about how easy it was to please the little human.

When Cornelia finally stopped, Catcher walked over and scooped her up, carrying her under his arm as he jumped up and easily balanced on the tiny railing. He glared down at Spike with a calculating gaze, and the youngling was beginning to wonder if he was planning a way to dispose of him without Cornelia finding out.

"**You are not to tell anyone else about her."**

Spike stared at him as he thought through the threat, and then simply shrugged. **"I hadn't planned on doing so anyway," **he replied truthfully. For who was there to tell?

It looked like he was about to turn and go, but Spike took a step forward and casually offered; **"Do you want me to show you where she lives?"**

Oh, bad move. The death glare was back, and it looked like he actually was planning his demise this time. But there was also the silent question as to why he had that information. But without even knowing what they were talking about, Cornelia answered for him.

"Catcher, we can't leave behind Spike. He's my friend too, we even had a tea party, and the next time you'll have to join too." He stared at Cornelia for a moment, and then turned to glare at the hunter in question. Catcher let out a displeased growl, but chose not to comment further on it as he turned and leaped off the building. Spike stared at the spot for a moment, then raced up to the edge and looked down. The duo was already on the ground and appeared unharmed judging by Cornelia's laughter.

Kor'h decided to avoid jumping down the many stores and rather took the stairs and climbed out the window he had come in. Catcher and Cornelia stood waiting for him, the hunter was impatiently tapping his foot as Spike came up to them and they started off in the direction of the Campbell residence.

The trip was fairly silent, when you looked away from Cornelia's laughter and joyful screams every time they jumped, climbed or fell.

Spike was a little surprised when the veteran addressed him.

"**By the way,"**

Kor'h looked over questionably, wondering what he wanted.

"**What is a tea party?"**

**To be continued…**


	6. Babysitting

Hahaha! It's been so long that I actually had to re-read my own stories to remember anything XD

Been over a year since the last update... and I don't have any excuses, only my laziness... And Tumblr! Can't forget Tumblr. If you're interested, my url is ImagineSnow.

I'm gonna try out writing on paper to see if it helps my writer's block any, so it'll hopefully be along sooner... a lot sooner.

* * *

_"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery_

**Chapter 6: Babysitting**

Emilia's eye twitched and she had to restrain herself from turning her head from the highway traffic and onto her daughter, sitting quietly in the backseat. Which was the whole reason the woman was on the verge of freaking out.

Cornelia was never quiet.

The blonde girl always acted like a chipmunk on a sugar high; rushing around without a pause, talking nonstop while questioning everything and everyone. There had even been that one time where they had been kindly asked to leave a restaurant because Cornelia kept bugging the waiters, and another where she had gotten herself and her father thrown out from a board meeting. The last incident had caused glee with both father and daughter, and they had run off to get ice cream as opposed to listening in on old guys complaining about everything in the world ( and the company).

Even while she was kept busy with either drawing or watching cartoons, the young Campbell would either hum a tune to herself or started a running commentary.

Now, the only sounds present were the cars rushing by and the motor on her own car.

Starting to feel a little worried, Emilia chanced taking her eyes off the road for a second and cast a look over her shoulder , then hurriedly looked forward again as one of the cars changed lanes. Still one quick peek had been enough. Feeling a little confused, Emilia kept navigating the highway, even as her worry faded a little.

In the backseat, Cornelia continued sleeping. Her head leaned against the door and her eyes closed, tired from her little adventure the evening before.

* * *

Cornelia blinked sleepily as someone shook her from her dream, where her two favorite aliens had decided to start their own sushi restaurant .

"Cornelia, sweetie? It's time to wake up now, we are here."

The girl snapped back to reality and looked over to her mother who slowly removed her hand from her daughters shoulder.

Emilia backed away from the open car door and let the child remove her seatbelt and jump out before she closed and locked the car. Putting the car keys into her purse, Emilia looked to her daughter and reached for her hand.

Cornelia cast her gaze around as her mother dragged her across the parking lot, in the end her eyes landed on the huge building ahead of them.

The automatic doors opened for them and the duo gave a quick greeting to the lady in the lobby before moving into one of the elevators. Emilia raised her hand and put it against a dark glass panel on the wall, where a green light ran over it before giving a light 'pip', granting them access to the transporter.

The woman pressed the button for the 5th floor and listened idly to Cornelia as she started singing the _My Little Pony_ intro.

The elevator pinged as the doors opened to a hallway with most of the doors in it handing open. Emilia moved past most of them, but was quick to wave back at people who noticed her. The two females moved through the last door and entered a huge room with windows covering one of the walls. Chairs, tables and other furniture were spread out over the space, with a plant or two thrown in to make it look more homey.

A few people were seated already, drinking coffee, reading newspapers, or whatever Emilia's colleagues decided to do with their breaks.

"Ah, Mrs. Campbell, thank you for coming on such short notice."

A short man wearing a business suit approached them and offered a smile of apology, which Emilia returned.

"It's no problem, I hope you won't mind my daughter tagging along. Her usual sitter is at summer camp, so I didn't have anyone to watch her."

The man blinked and a small frown covered his features, "I apologize , but the meeting is supposed to be top secret. Letting a child listen in would be..." He turned to look at said child, but found the space she had previously been in empty.

Emilia followed his gaze and stared at the empty spot for a moment before she turned to look for her.

It didn't take long. They found her questioning some men who were putting together new bookcases, along with removing the old ones who had been really unstable. Emilia knew this for a fact as the last time she had brought Cornelia along with her, the girl had started climbing them. It was only luck that saved her from getting the whole thing crashing down on the child.

"Cornelia, how many times have I told you not to wander off!" Emilia scolded her and pulled her away from the workers, who gave her a grateful look.

"But I didn't leave the room!" Cornelia complained, a pout present on her face.

Emilia gave a sigh, but didn't comment. She cast a look back at her boss who was watching them with a slightly impatient expression, pointing toward his wristwatch.

Her original plan had been to let some of her coworkers watch her in the break room while she drew or read a book, but she wasn't too sure about that idea anymore. The others still had jobs to do, and couldn't be asked to watch her. It was not helping that Cornelia was bound to wander off once she got bored and ran out of things to do.

"Would you mind easing up on the doomsday expression , Emilia? It looks like your plotting revenge on someone who crossed your little princess."

Said blonde blinked in surprise and turned slightly to take in the messy blonde hair and the usual camouflage pants (she was starting to wonder if he owned other designs at all). "Miles?"

Cornelia's head snapped back to said man, and didn't waste a second more before throwing herself at him. "Miles! Hello!"

Miles chuckled to himself as he bent down, throwing the girl up before catching her again. The duo hugged each other tightly before separating so that they could look at each other, but Miles still refused to let her down. "Hey there princess, haven't seen you here since I saved you from being buried by the girl-eating books."

Cornelia gave him an annoyed look. "It was your fault in the first place! You put my bunny on the top shelf."

"And I would have given it back if you had just agreed to give me the title of number one friend! It isn't such a difficult thing to do, surely!" Miles argued with a playful pout.

Emilia stared at the duo as they bantered back and forth, and a new idea was created.

"Miles, your shift ends in... 10 minutes, right?"

The man and Cornelia turned to look at Emilia with identical puzzled looks. "Yeah. Why, you need anything?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

Emilia let out a relieved sigh and walked up to him while pulling out her wallet from her purse. "Could you possibly watch Cornelia for a couple hours? Maybe go to the zoo or something? I'll be done here about around six."

Miles blinked, and a smile slowly spread across his face, "Sure, I'd love to play with her for a few hours. Been a while since we spent some time together. "

"That's great. Here is a couple dollars to spend on food and maybe a toy, just don't give her any sugar... You'll be responsible for the consequences if you do." The man couldn't help but let a chill run down his back at the warning, but accepted the money none the less. Right afterward the woman was snatched away by her boss who decided that he had waited long enough.

"And don't wander off!" Emilia managed to get out before she disappeared into the hallway.

Cornelia and Miles stared after her for a moment, then turned to each other and simultaneously started chuckling.

Miles put down the blonde and give her a smile as they made their way toward Miles' office to get his things. "Guess it's just you and me, huh?"

Cornelia shook her head. "No it's not."

Miles gave her a confused look, prompting her to explain her statement.

"There's Catcher and Spike also!"

* * *

Miles cast a sideways glance to the girl who was holding onto his hand as he paid for their tickets.

In the end they had decided to do as Emilia had suggested and gone to the Zoo. And Cornelia had pointed out that it was outside, so Catcher and Spike could simply jump over the fence and follow them.

The newly appointed babysitter remembered Catcher from their previous conversations , but he had never heard of Spike before, which prompted him to ask her. To which she had told him he was her newest friend, and was like Catcher. Meaning a new invisible friend.

Miles gave a heavy sigh as they showed their tickets and moved through the gate. He was probably the only guy in the world who had to compete with invisible guys for a girl's affection. Seriously, his luck sucked.

He peeked down at the girl as she excitedly pointed down toward the lion pit. Letting a smile grace his face, he reached out a hand and playfully ruffled her hair. She looked up at him and gave a smile of her own.

Oh well... at least he still was her number one friend, even if he had to share it with two others.

"I wanna see the elephants next!" Cornelia informed the blonde, snapping him out of whatever weird funk he had gotten into.

"Sure, just be sure that they don't grab you and decide you can be their new pet", Miles drawled, making the girl give him an annoyed look.

"I can't be a pet! I'm a human, humans can't be pets!"

Somewhere not too far away, two yautja guiltily looked away from each other and the duo they where stalking. The thought had crossed their minds at least once before.

Cornelia and Miles spent the next hour wandering from different animal displays before they decided to take a break and check out what cafes the Zoo had to offer. In the end they decided on a cozy little place beside the bird section. Sitting down at one of the light green tables, Miles went to pick up some juice boxes and sandwiches while Cornelia made sure no one took their seats.

When Miles returned a few minutes later, balancing two plates while trying not to drop their drinks, he noticed that Cornelia had pulled out her sketch book from her backpack and had started drawing. He set down their plates and let himself fall back into the unoccupied chair and let his head loll back, giving him a good view of the few white clouds that were drifting across the big blue sky.

He grabbed his sandwich without taking his eyes of it, content with letting Cornelia entertain herself for a while.

Once he was done with his food and started sipping on his juice, his curiosity got the better of him and he looked back down to his companion.

Cornelia had pulled out her colored pencils while he hadn't been watching, and was staring intently on the paper as she guided the green pencil across it with careful motions. She would pause for a few seconds only to take a bite out of her half-eaten sandwich and a sip of her juice before going back to her drawing.

His curiosity finally got the better of him and he let himself slide out of his seat and stalked up behind the blonde.

Miles stared at the picture for a moment, then decided that the first two figures who were standing in front of a cage with a lion were them. Then his eyes landed on the two other figures a small distance away from them.

His brain froze for a moment, but was quick at pressing the button.

"That wouldn't happen to be Catcher and Spike, would it?"

Cornelia jumped in her seat, then turned to stare at the man she hadn't notice sneaking up behind her. She cast a glance back at her drawing before nodding up at her babysitter and held her sketchbook up to him, which he gladly took.

"Yeah, that one is Catcher, and that one is Spike", Cornelia explained as she pointed to each of them in turn.

Miles stared for a minute, but then a smirk crossed his features. "They look a little scary. I had pictured something completely different when you told me about them."

He flipped the page over to look at some older drawings, complimenting her art as he took a mental note of the fact that the one labeled Catcher showing up in most of them, while Spike only showed up only in the most recent .

In the end he closed the book and handed it back to the girl who was positively beaming with all the praise on her work.

"Any reason why Spike has a ... skull around his neck?" Miles raised an eyebrow at the girl, secretly wondering what sort of movies Mr. Campbell let his daughter watch, because it sure wasn't Emilia's fault.

"Um... It's supposed to be a secret, so you must promise not to tell anyone", Cornelia explained as she cast suspicious glances around them, checking for any who may be listening in on their conversation.

Miles smiled and knelt down so that they were face to face, then lifted his hand, pinky held out for her to take, "I pinky promise."

Cornelia smiled and wrapped her own pinkie around his, which was a bit difficult with the difference in hand size, but they made it work. "Pinkie promise", the girl repeated as they shook on it.

Miles leaned a little closer as Cornelia did the same. Lowering her voice to a near whisper, she told him, "Catcher and Spike are space hunters."

When this didn't get any reaction except for a confused blink, Cornelia let out an exasperated sigh and decided to elaborate.

"They are hunters, like you told me you went on once, with the deer. Only they hunt in space, they zoom around in UFO's and go to different planets and hunt there. "

Miles had the fleeting thought that he really needed to talk to Aaron on what he let his daughter watch before he opened his mouth with a question. "So they hunt on Earth?"

Cornelia's brows fell together into a frown as she thought it over, then nodded in confirmation. "They probably don't have deer on other planets, so they had to come here to hunt them."

Miles let his eyes drift back to the sketch book, but decided to refrain from commenting that the skull around Spike's neck didn't look like it had come from a deer. But then again, Cornelia probably didn't know what one looked like, so had gone with something she was more familiar with. They still showed skulls in pirate cartoons, right?

"Right. How about you finish your sandwich and we'll continue to the reptiles?"

It didn't take long before their lunch was no more and the duo continued over to the housing where the snakes and bugs chilled behind solid glass.

Cornelia had a tendency to press her face onto the glass as she had a couple staring contests with the Zoo's multiple species of snakes and lizards, which Miles had to look away from to refrain from laughing out loud.

He was pleasantly surprised with Cornelia for not being one of those squeamish girls that ran screaming every time something moved inside the glass cage. However, thinking back on her drawing, he should have expected it.

As the day went on they moved back toward the entrance and made a last stop at the souvenir shop where Cornelia got to pick out something she wanted.

Miles was proud to say that he only spared a moment to be surprised at her choice before shrugging and handed it over to the woman in the register, who raised an eyebrow at the pair.

Cornelia had a beaming smile glued to her face as they walked out the gate, a long plush Anaconda wrapped around her neck and waist.

* * *

They still had some time left before they were expected back so they Cornelia decided they were going to the park, where she could show off her new plush. Not that there had been a couple of people who had given them odd looks. There had even been one guy that had done a double take.

The park wasn't overly crowded, but there were some kids playing with a ball that allowed Cornelia to join them, but only after they had been allowed to pet the anaconda that was still wrapped around her.

Miles settled down on a park bench to watch, but he hadn't sat there for more than a few minutes before Cornelia came running up to him with an innocent smile plastered on her face, leaving miles with a suspicion that was soon proven true.

"It's really hot today, and playing football is making it worse, so we have decided that you should go buy us some ice cream."

Miles gave the blonde a disbelieving look before peeking over her shoulder where seven kids where staring at him with various pleading looks. Damn it.

"Well I can't just leave you alone just to buy some ice cream, now can I? Don't you remember the last time that happened?"

A blush spread across Cornelia's cheeks and pointedly looked away from him. "But he tried to grab my doll without asking!"

"So you tackled him and decided that rubbing his face into the dirt was a good idea?"

Her face got possibly scarlet at that, but she stubbornly held her ground and looked back at him, returning to the original argument. "Spike and Catcher can watch me while you are away, they already have been , so what's the big deal?"

Miles simply raised an eyebrow before looking back at the kids. They were many enough to manage being alone for five minutes, and those puppy dog eyes they were giving him was really disturbing to watch.

"Put on the flute your mother gave you, and don't talk to any strangers while I'm gone. Use the flute if something happens, I should be able to hear it", Miles told her as he rose from his seat.

Cornelia beamed and opened her backpack, pulling out the flute she got a year ago and fastened the string around her neck, letting it rest over the leaf stone that was safely hidden under her clothes. A second later she was rushing back to her playmates, starting a new match.

Miles let out a sigh as he began to stalk along the path, which he was pretty sure led to a convenience store just outside the park. Still, he couldn't help but look over his shoulder a couple of times. And no one who knew Cornelia Campbell could blame him. That girl had a unique ability of getting into trouble.

Hopefully nothing too bad could happen in five minutes.

* * *

Cornelia ran around one of the boys she was playing with and managed to snatch away the ball which had been sent toward him, with a victorious grin she kicked it with all the power she could muster toward the two sticks that functioned as goal posts.

It really was too bad that she managed to completely miss the goal and kick the ball right into the picnic some teenagers had set up.

The children stood staring at the four teenagers that were now decorated with various drinks and food items, the girl of the group even had her hair full of popcorn.

The tense silence was broken as one of the boys started shouting a string of words that their parents would have frowned upon, but that wasn't really the most important thing right at the moment as they all rose and turned toward the children.

"Who kicked that ball?!"

Now there were two options the kids could take at this moment. Number one was to point toward Cornelia and make a break for it, or number two; simply skip step one and make break for it.

But since Cornelia had never been one to follow expectations, she chose to decide for them.

"You'll never catch me alive!" was the battle cry the blonde went with as she turned and bolted from the teenagers, throwing in an evil laugh just to top it off.

Deciding to follow her example, the other children ran off screaming with four unhappy teenagers after them, resulting in a tag battle of epic proportions into taking place.

They focused mostly on catching Cornelia since she was the one who had ruined their picnic, but that didn't mean the other children wasn't her partners in crime.

It turned out the children were much more difficult to catch than the teens had predicted. Anytime they got close enough to grab one of the kids, they would suddenly trip over something, but when they looked behind them as they lay sprawled out on the grass, they wouldn't find anything. There even was one time where Cornelia managed to trip while one of the teens were right behind her, and would have fallen right on her if her pursuer hadn't been hit in the side by an invisible force and toppled over sideways.

Cornelia had been up again in a second with a "thanks!" shouted to her protective alien friend. A low rumble followed her as she dodged past one of the other teens. The teenager that had almost stepped on her used a little more time in pulling himself together before getting back up.

This was of course the scene Miles witnessed as he returned with a box of ice cream under his arm, and he would later swear that the sound of his palm connecting with his face was what clued the kids in on the fact that he was back, because the next seconds ended with eight kids hiding behind him. He let out a long sigh before removing his hand and gave the teens that had turned to glare his way a long suffering look.

"What did she do this time?"

It didn't take too long to get the gist of what happened, and he sent an 'I-told-you-so' look to Cornelia who had the decency to look sheepish about doing exactly what he had feared.

"Sorry about this, but you have to admit that it was an accident, no hard feelings." Miles tried to go with a sheepish smile worthy of Cornelia, but the teens still continued to glare at him and the kids behind him.

"That doesn't change the fact that they still ruined all our food and even broke the plates, and instead of trying to make up for it or even apologizing they ran away", the girl of the group pointed out with a frosty stare.

"They are still kids, and got scared when you got mad at them. I agree that they should have done what you said, but I don't really blame them, seeing as when I showed up you were chasing them all over. What exactly where you planning on doing when you caught them?"

Miles was really trying to play peacemaker, but the teens where making it hard to keep a straight face. They all looked like someone had thrown a full stocked shelf of food into their path. And the syrup dripping from the hair of the tallest boy was making Miles' lip twitch.

In the end it ended up with Miles paying for the damage and made the children apologize before the teens skulked off to go wash up. Which left the babysitter with eight children who were staring in awe up at him. He handed out the ice cream and let himself fall back onto the grass with his own frosty goodness as he watched the children take up another game.

Of course, they decided to go with hide and seek, the one game where Miles had no chance at watching out for them. He let out a sigh, but decided to let them play, all the while taking note of where every single one of them went to hide.

Hopefully Cornelia's 'get-into-trouble' quota had been fulfilled for the day.

Miles let his tense shoulders relax after three successful games, in which Cornelia had show her skill at hiding by not getting caught until the searcher gave up. The smug smile she sent him when she caught him watching was enough to make a grin spread across his face.

Sparing a look to his cell to check on the time, Miles decided to grant them one more round before they had to go.

Cornelia hadn't been found after 15 minutes, which wasn't all that strange, but when the searcher called for all to come out, they were still missing one of the crew.

Miles frowned as he got to his feet and strolled over, counting them again as he came to a stop beside Cornelia, who was (along with the other kids) calling out for Sophie to come out since the game was over.

When the girl still hadn't shown up after a quick search in the nearby bushes, worry stated to creep up on the only adult in the group.

He was near losing his cool when Cornelia came rushing out from a bush and didn't waste any time with grabbing his hand and dragging him with her, back the way she came.

"Spike found her!" was the only explanation he got as he followed the blonde in dodging around trees and roots sticking out of the ground.

Miles was pretty sure they had passed the agreed area they could use to hide, so it wasn't too strange that they hadn't heard the quiet sobs of the girl that was lying on the ground a small distance away from them.

He let his confusion color his face as he wondered why she hadn't managed to walk back, it shouldn't have been so hard even with a skinned knee. Of course, that's when he caught sight of the thick root she somehow managed to get her foot wrapped in.

Teary brown eyes lifted as their footsteps became audible and she let out a desperate cry for help as the duo came running.

Miles slowed to a stop by her side and knelt down, trying to calm the crying brunette while Cornelia sat at her other side, holding the girls hand in her own.

Sophia managed to get out an explanation in between sobs. How she had wanted to run further than ever before to find a better hiding place, but had ended up tripping on a root that had left her trapped out of hearing distance for her calls of help.

Miles let his eyes travel down to her trapped leg that showed some bruising after her desperate tries at getting loose, but had only managed to make it tighten its grip on her ankle.

"Just hang on a little longer, and I'll get you lose, okay?"

Sophie gave a whimper before her head dipped in a nod.

Deciding not to waste any more time, Miles planted his feet firmly on each side if the root and got a good grip on it before giving a quick tug. Surprisingly, he only managed to loosen the hold slightly, which was in no way enough to free the girl. Miles pulled a good few times more, but the root wouldn't budge.

It was only when he lost his grip and fell back onto the ground that he allowed himself a quick pause to catch his breath.

"I'm going to need something to pry it off. Cornelia, could you-"

He didn't get any further before a knife was suddenly dangling before his eyes. Blinking in confusion, he looked past the sharp weapon to Cornelia, who was holding it out for him to take.

Miles stared at it for a few seconds, then lifted a hand and carefully took it from the eight-year-old. The handle and weight would indicate a throwing knife. Either new or well cared for, he decided, judging by the shine, along with the sharp blade.

Ending his quick analysis, the babysitter turned a confused and worried look to Cornelia, really not wanting to know, but felt like he had to ask.

"Where'd you get this?"

Cornelia gave him a considering look before pointing vaguely to her left, "Spike lent it to me, but we have to give it back when we're done with it."

Miles let his head turn gradually to look, but all his eyes landed on was trees and various plants decorating the ground. Still, the feeling of being watched had followed him through the day, and he still felt eyes on him. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Miles let his eyes glide back to Cornelia, who had knelt beside Sophie as she tried to cheer up the distressed girl.

His grip on the knife tightened as he flashed back to the year before, in the jungle where it all started.

Many of the other adults had either laughed or disregarded the child's story as soon as she told them about her new best friend. Only Miles had taken her seriously, and even then, he only did it to preserve the girl's creative imagination. Every child needed someone to believe in them, and Miles had gladly stepped up to take the role.

But now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Strange things had happened on that expedition, and many of them seemed to be centered around the little girl.

One of the most disturbing things, they only was informed about one week after they had gotten back to The States.

The remains of a camp had been discovered by some explorers, who had quickly contacted authorities.

It was soon discovered that the remains was that of the crew of none other than Carl Cartridge, who had managed to escape jail for many years. The main cause being that all the witnesses went missing.

No one had been sad to see him gone, but an investigation was started anyway, since it had been obvious that no animal had been the cause of death.

After many interview and sample testing, Miles and his co-workers had been taken off the suspect list. Though they all had felt uneasy about the fact that the mass murder had taken place while they still were in the area, thanking the heavens that they hadn't been targeted as well.

The case had gone cold, and all had seemed to go back to normal.

But now that Miles actually thought back on it, he had a horrifying realization.

The morning after the massacre, Miles went to pick up Cornelia, only to find the girl sitting on her temporary bed in a dirty and slightly torn PJ. Emilia had been crouching before her, tying a bandage around her daughter's foot.

When Miles had finally been calmed down from his panic, Emilia had explained what had happened.

Apparently the little troublemaker had gone out in the night to get a snack, but had managed to trip and hurt herself on some equipment. While explaining this, Cornelia had been blushing in embarrassment. And once Mrs. Campbell had promised him that his favorite playmate was okay, he finally let it go and went about to cheer up the blonde.

But Miles was no fool. He had served in the military for three years, and the way Cornelia had looked that morning was terribly alike how many of his fellow cadets had appeared after some of the survival exercise that lasted for a few days.

Still, he had let that thought go, because he didn't want his suspicion to be proven right.

Miles snapped back to reality as Cornelia called his name.

She was giving him a pointed look, and Miles used a few seconds more than he usually would to figure out what it was she wanted.

His grip on the knife had tightened enough to be slightly painful, and he quickly loosened his grip and moved over to the two girls.

Collecting himself, Miles stopped his hands from shaking as he carefully started to cut through the root.

All the while aware of the invisible eyes that were fixed on him.

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
